He added that the fight will be a “tough task” for him but said he is ready for it. His only defeat was against Floyd Mayweather in 2013.
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De La Hoya took it a step further.
“It’s huge for boxing because this is a new era in our sport”, De La Hoya proclaimed.
“I feel really strong at this weight”, Alvarez said in reference to 155 pounds.
“I’ll fight anybody anytime”.
His straightforward reply: “I can’t answer that right now”.
Boxing fans know that the Cinco De Mayo weekend and the key September weekend have been Mayweather’s dominion, weekends that have drawn massive boxing fans to the MGM Arena.
The red-headed Mexican sensation’s victory over the more experienced and fleet-footed Cotto, Puerto Rico’s most popular fighter, also set up a superfight against middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, the undefeated Kazakh knockout artist who was sitting ringside.
A few rest is deserved after Alvarez willingly engaged with one of the best boxers of the past decade. He came forward a lot in the fight, but I don’t think just coming forward wins fights.
In front of a celebrity crowd of figures such as Jay-Z, Beyonce, and recent UFC sensation Holly Holm, Alvarez gained the unanimous decision win by utilizing his strength and size by seemingly stalking the 35-year-old Cotto (40-5, 33 KO’s) throughout the night.
As the fight went into the later rounds, Alvarez’s power wore down Cotto, who didn’t have enough gas in the tank to get a stoppage. “It’s a great victory for me, not just me but all of my country”, Alvarez said.
Alvarez landed 155 of the 484 punches he threw, according to CompuBox, with 118 of them registering as power shots.
Sensing he was down, Cotto attempted to counter to the head, but Alvarez’s improved lateral and head movement made it hard to land anything flush, except for jabs to the head. The performance against Cotto will surely draw more fans to his side.
“We didn’t lose the fight by that much”, Cotto’s Hall of Fame trainer, Freddie Roach, said. “There’s no (expletive) way”. If Roach failed to tell Cotto that he was losing the fight due to him not wanting to upset him, then he needs to realize that he’s not being paid to keep the truth from Cotto. All three judges scored the bout in favor of Rigondeaux, 100-90, 100-90, 97-93.
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Canelo and Oscar are two different fighters and it is unfair to compare Canelo to Oscar right now considering all the incredible things Oscar has accomplished in his boxing career, but that will always happen in individual sports, especially with two men of Mexican descent.
