Canelo Alvarez and Miguel Cotto will go to battle on November 21, 2015. The fight is for the WBC middleweight championship, and the winner will have lengthy options available for them afterward.
If Cotto wins the bout, it will likely be one of his last appearances on the big stage as a victory would be just a sweet ending to an already Hall of Fame career. Cotto being with Freddie Roach now since 2013 will likely never look for a rematch with Pacquiao. However, the same cannot be said for Canelo.
Team Pacquiao has been looking in all the wrong places for a final fight. Pacquiao has recently posted on social media that he is looking for a rematch with Floyd Mayweather. Their first fight whether you thought it was much closer than the judges scored it was a huge disappointment, and came off as a boxing exhibition in a cashout rather than a match to prove who was the best of the generation.
Mayweather tends to separate himself more from his opponent in rematches and his fights against Marcos Maidana and Jose Luis Castillo prove to be the case.
The usual suspects from Top Rank are Pacquiao’s next choice of opponents in Terence Crawford and the Timothy Bradley-Brandon Rios winner. Pacquiao already has faced Bradley twice, and he dominated Rios in China in 2013. All three of those PPV matches sold under a million PPV buys and would not garner much interest from the public.
Besides not having much public interest, Pacquiao himself may not have any interest or real motivation for rematches with either fighter. Pacquiao facing Crawford would be a big test for Pacquiao against a fighter who stylistically does not match up favorably and would not bring much box office appeal.
Although Pacquiao would get credit for facing a fighter in his physical prime and considered one of the best in the world, Pacquiao would be doing Top Rank a favor rather than himself.
While Pacquiao may have looked like he was going through the motions against Floyd Mayweather would the same happen against Canelo Alvarez?
Canelo is not the fastest fighter, and his foot speed is almost non-existent. Yes, Canelo may end up being too big for Pacquiao but the Filipino will have an enormous speed advantage and can exploit many of Canelo’s weaknesses with his vast experience.
A Pacquiao-Canelo bout would be a massive event and would give Pacquiao another lucrative payday. Not to mention the matchup could prove to be very exciting. The storyline of revenge for De La Hoya on Pacquiao and Freddie Roach could be used to sell the fight, and it is the last combination of fights that has not taken place between the four biggest draws of the era. (Mayweather, Pacquiao, Cotto and Canelo).
The weight where the matchup would take place would be the biggest obstacle in making the match. Pacquiao has not fought above 150, and Canelo has not fought below 155 for some fights now.
Pacquiao may want to let Canelo have whatever weight he wants.
Pacquiao knows how to take advantage of slower fighters and uses his shorter stature to his advantage, too.
Pacquiao may prove to be too fast for Canelo and Canelo may be too big and land that one punch that could end the fight. If Pacquiao is looking for a fight that could make him the most money, enhance his legacy, and is winnable, then a matchup with Canelo may be something he may want to think about.
– Hector Franco @mrhector_franco
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