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By Dan Rafael
ESPN.com
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Two days after scoring a spectacular one-punch knockout victory, junior middleweight Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, one of Mexico's most popular fighters, finalized a contract extension with Golden Boy Promotions, the company announced Monday.
Alvarez, just 20 and already with a rock star-like following in Mexico, stole the show Saturday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles, where he knocked out former welterweight champ Carlos Baldomir with a flush left hook in the sixth round in the co-feature of the Shane Mosley-Sergio Mora pay-per-view card.
Terms of the multiyear agreement were not disclosed. However, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com that Alvarez (34-0-1, 26 KOs) had one fight remaining on a three-fight deal with the company and the new deal replaced that.
"We did a new [deal] and extended it to a multiyear deal," Schaefer said. "We had discussed it for awhile, to enter into a multifight deal. The whole team gets along great. He wanted to stay with us and we wanted to stay with him. We discussed an extension for quite awhile and Saul was here in Los Angeles after the fight, so we got it done. We put the finishing touches on it and now we're going to be working together for many years to come."
"I'm happy with my performance against Baldomir and to re-sign with Golden Boy Promotions," Alvarez said. "Getting to this point in my career has been a team effort, and with the people I have around me, I'm confident that the next step will be a world championship."
When Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya first signed Alvarez in January, he hailed it as a "historic" for his company. So he was pleased to extend their deal.
"If anyone wasn't convinced that 'Canelo' Alvarez is a future world champion, they have to be believers now," De La Hoya said. "At just 20 years old, he knocked out a tough former world champion who had only been knocked out one time in 64 fights and that was 16 years ago. He is going to be a star in this sport for a long time, and we're proud to have him on our team."
Said Jose "Chepo" Reynoso, Alvarez's manager, "Golden Boy Promotions has been the perfect partner for Team Alvarez on the road to the top and I'm confident in their plans for Saul in the coming years. I think we're all aware how special a young man Saul is, and with his talent, hard work and focus, he will one day be a world champion and, eventually, one of boxing's best pound-for-pound fighters."
Fighting in the United States for only the third time, Alvarez drew tremendous support from the heavily Mexican crowd of 13,591 on Saturday night, who chanted "Canelo! Canelo! Canelo!" throughout his dominant victory against Baldomir, which took place on a card on the weekend of the Mexican bicentennial.
"There is an Alvarez buzz in Los Angeles," Schaefer said. "And I haven't, in the years I've been promoting, felt that buzz in Los Angeles for any boxer other than Oscar."
Schaefer said Alvarez, who fought Baldomir at junior middleweight as a concession but wants to return to welterweight, will next fight Dec. 4, most likely in Cancun, Mexico.
"Next week I will be trying to finalize our plans for U.S. television for the fight, but it will be on television," Schaefer said. "There are some names which we are discussing, but we're working through that. But it will be something interesting."
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter @danrafaelespn.
ESPN.com
Archive
Two days after scoring a spectacular one-punch knockout victory, junior middleweight Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, one of Mexico's most popular fighters, finalized a contract extension with Golden Boy Promotions, the company announced Monday.
Alvarez, just 20 and already with a rock star-like following in Mexico, stole the show Saturday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles, where he knocked out former welterweight champ Carlos Baldomir with a flush left hook in the sixth round in the co-feature of the Shane Mosley-Sergio Mora pay-per-view card.
Terms of the multiyear agreement were not disclosed. However, Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com that Alvarez (34-0-1, 26 KOs) had one fight remaining on a three-fight deal with the company and the new deal replaced that.
"We did a new [deal] and extended it to a multiyear deal," Schaefer said. "We had discussed it for awhile, to enter into a multifight deal. The whole team gets along great. He wanted to stay with us and we wanted to stay with him. We discussed an extension for quite awhile and Saul was here in Los Angeles after the fight, so we got it done. We put the finishing touches on it and now we're going to be working together for many years to come."
"I'm happy with my performance against Baldomir and to re-sign with Golden Boy Promotions," Alvarez said. "Getting to this point in my career has been a team effort, and with the people I have around me, I'm confident that the next step will be a world championship."
When Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya first signed Alvarez in January, he hailed it as a "historic" for his company. So he was pleased to extend their deal.
"If anyone wasn't convinced that 'Canelo' Alvarez is a future world champion, they have to be believers now," De La Hoya said. "At just 20 years old, he knocked out a tough former world champion who had only been knocked out one time in 64 fights and that was 16 years ago. He is going to be a star in this sport for a long time, and we're proud to have him on our team."
Said Jose "Chepo" Reynoso, Alvarez's manager, "Golden Boy Promotions has been the perfect partner for Team Alvarez on the road to the top and I'm confident in their plans for Saul in the coming years. I think we're all aware how special a young man Saul is, and with his talent, hard work and focus, he will one day be a world champion and, eventually, one of boxing's best pound-for-pound fighters."
Fighting in the United States for only the third time, Alvarez drew tremendous support from the heavily Mexican crowd of 13,591 on Saturday night, who chanted "Canelo! Canelo! Canelo!" throughout his dominant victory against Baldomir, which took place on a card on the weekend of the Mexican bicentennial.
"There is an Alvarez buzz in Los Angeles," Schaefer said. "And I haven't, in the years I've been promoting, felt that buzz in Los Angeles for any boxer other than Oscar."
Schaefer said Alvarez, who fought Baldomir at junior middleweight as a concession but wants to return to welterweight, will next fight Dec. 4, most likely in Cancun, Mexico.
"Next week I will be trying to finalize our plans for U.S. television for the fight, but it will be on television," Schaefer said. "There are some names which we are discussing, but we're working through that. But it will be something interesting."
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter @danrafaelespn.
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