By Ryan Burton
At this afternoon's media press conference for Mexican sensation Saul "Canelo" Alvarez at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Oscar De la Hoya laid out their plans for the 20 year old fighter. It is apparent that Team Alvarez wants to stay busy.
"We spoke to Canelo and his team and they want him to fight 4 times next year," De La Hoya told BoxingScene.com
This will be the year that Canelo gets major U.S. exposure as Golden Boy tries to turn him into a crossover star. "We plan on bringing Canelo back to L.A. at the Nokia Theatre in either February or March. The Nokia Theatre holds 8,000 people."
De la Hoya continued, "Canelo has learned some English already and he is going to take some classes to become fluent."
Canelo went on to say - "I followed Chavez when he was fighting and he is obviously a legend in Mexico. I want to follow his footsteps and I want to learn English so I can appeal more to the American fans."
While Alvarez wants to build fans in the U.S. he doens't plan on abandoning his fans in his native Mexico where he as a rock star like aura. De La Hoya said that he has spoken to HBO and that they plan on televising 3 of his fights this year and that Alvarez will also have one fight in Mexico.
"Canelo and Chepo (Reynoso) want to make sure that Canelo still fights in Mexico. We have talked to HBO and we plan on having him fight 3 times in the U.S. and once in Mexico next year," De La Hoya said.
Golden Boy doesn't have an opponent named for Alvarez's next fight but De la Hoya has a couple names in mind, "We are looking at having Canelo fight the WBA (welterweight) champion (Viacheslav) Senchenko or Mathew Hatton for his next fight."
Golden Boy is expected to have an announcement soon on an opponent and exact date for Alvarez's next fight.
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