Floyd Mayweather and Canelo
Alvarez agreed to terms late Wednesday to fight in a WBA/WBC super welterweight
unification bout. The match will be held at a maximum weight of 152 pounds and
will be at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.
Showtime will distribute the
pay-per-view.
The bout is, arguably, the
most significant that can be made from a pay-per-view standpoint. Golden Boy
Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said he thinks the fight has a chance to
surpass the 2.5 million sales that Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya generated in
2007 to set the record.
Mayweather, 36, will be
fighting just four months after a 12-round decision over Robert Guerrero on May
4. Mayweather hasn’t fought twice in a four-month period since 2001, when he
met Diego Corrales on Jan. 20 and then fought Carlos Hernandez on May 26.
“Floyd wanted to give the fans
what they wanted to see and this is the fight the fans and the media were
calling for,” said Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions. “Nobody
believed him, but Floyd stood up there [at the podium at the post-fight news
conference after the win over Guerrero] and told everyone he’d be back in
September.
“Canelo is a good young
fighter, but he’s bitten off more than he can chew. Floyd said, ‘I’m going to
whip that ass.’ This is a whole other level we’re talking about.”
Asked if he saw any way that
Mayweather could lose, Ellerbe said, “Impossible.”
Alvarez, who will be 23 in
July, is unbeaten like Mayweather, though he has one draw blemishing his
record. Mayweather is a perfect 44-0, while Alvarez is 42-0-1 with 30
knockouts. He respects Mayweather, but said he won’t be intimidated and thinks
he’ll win.
“He’s a great fighter, but I
have intelligence in that ring and I have the same speed he has,” Alvarez said
through interpreter Eric Gomez. “I can use my head, but I have that special
thing: I have some power that will help me.”
Ellerbe said Mayweather was
always focused on making a deal with Alvarez and said no other opponents had
been discussed.
Top Rank president Todd duBoef
said he will move his fight card featuring a super lightweight title match
between Juan Manuel Marquez and Timothy Bradley Jr. – originally planned for
Sept. 14 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas – to Oct. 14 so as not to
conflict with the Mayweather-Alvarez fight.
Also, the LVH sports book in
Las Vegas opened Mayweather as a slightly better than 2-1 favorite. It has
Mayweather at minus-250 and Alvarez at plus-210. (Source)
