By Chris Robinson
I remember having a candid conversation with HBO color commentator Larry Merchant this past December, days after Saul Alvarez's gritty victory over former champion Lovemore N'dou in Veracruz, Mexico. Merchant and I discussed Alvarez in depth, talking of his future aspirations and just how serious his potential is.
Merchant seemed to be on cloud nine when he analyzed the young fighter from Jalisco, Mexico, fully believing that he has a certain pedigree and poised attack that beguile his youth. Merchant would even go on to tell me that if Alvarez continued his winning ways that he would welcome the thought of a potential face off with WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, widely regarded as the best fighter in the world.
Three months later and Saul Alvarez is now a champion, just a little over a week removed from capturing the vacant WBC junior middleweight championship with a clear-cut decision victory over England's Matthew Hatton. It was only natural for me to give Merchant a ring and get his thoughts on the performance.
"I'm still very high on him and I think he's an outstanding 20-year old fighter," said Merchant. "Time will tell how good he is. But to accomplish what he has so far is pretty impressive. When he fights the elite fighters we will find out just how good he is. Right now he's as good as he can be or as good as it gets at this age."
But what about a fight with Pacquiao down the road? I had to ask Larry if that was something that still perked his interest.
"The way Arum is going, only willing to fight his own people, his own fighters, and having this moment when he's got more of the top fighters than anyone else and he doesn't want to see his fighters fight anyone else's fighters, I don't think it's a real serious prospect right now. Because of the feud with Golden Boy," he continued.
Fair enough. I could sense a little more realism in Merchant's voice this time around. You can easily spot his fondness for 'Canelo' but in many ways we still have a kid on our hands. Pacquiao is getting ready for a fight of his own on May 7th against Shane Mosley in Las Vegas and thinking of the two fighters meeting at this point is just fascination.
Merchant closed out our talk by claiming that whether or not Golden Boy is ever able to do business with Top Rank again, they still have a very hot ticket on their hands in Alvarez. Taking things step by step and one day at a time is what works best for the moment.
"I think Alvarez is shaping up as Golden Boy's answer to, not Pacquiao because nobody's an answer to Pacquiao at this point, but where was Pacquiao when he was 20? They feel they can just move him the way it is. He put a lot of asses into seats last weekend. Both in the homes watching on television and live against an opponent who was not really well known. Their best way to respond to how Arum is running the show is to develop somebody like this. I'm sure we will see a lot more of him on television. He's a very appealing, charismatic fighter."
