By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – The cut Canelo Alvarez suffered over his left eye during his 12-round rematch against Gennady Golovkin was deep enough and long enough to threaten this quick return to the ring the Mexican superstar sought.

Once a plastic surgeon cleared him to train for a fight Saturday night, however, Alvarez was willing to risk that tender skin re-opening during camp. The WBA/WBC middleweight champion pushed back his sparring schedule to help that laceration heal properly, protected it well and seemingly had no issues with it while preparing for his shot at WBA world super middleweight champion Rocky Fielding.

A scar was visible over his left eye when Alvarez met with the media several times this week, but that wound appeared to be totally healed. Alvarez did have a fresher nick beneath his right eye, the consequence of a rough sparring session recently.

Alvarez called the scab the result of a scratch, not a cut. He also assured a small group of reporters that it wouldn’t negatively impact his performance when he faces Fielding.

“Just a little scratch,” Alvarez said, according to his translator.

There was some minor bruising below Alvarez’s right eye as well.

The 28-year-old Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KOs) is regularly listed as a 15-1 favorite over England’s Fielding (27-1, 15 KOs) in their scheduled 12-round, 168-pound title fight at Madison Square Garden.

Fielding, 31, will make the first defense of his WBA world super middleweight title against Alvarez. The Liverpool native won that belt by stopping Germany’s Tyron Zeuge (23-1-1, 13 KOs) in the fifth round July 14 in Offenburg, Germany.

Alvarez and Fielding will headline an eight-fight card that’ll be streamed live by DAZN.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.