“For Latinos all over the world, this is our Super Bowl”, said Oscar De La Hoya, who promotes Alvarez.
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It was instead an evening to rejoice.
Roach was magnanimous in defeat toward Alvarez, saying, “He’s become a better fighter”.
In the ring, Canelo said he would “fight [GGG] right now”. “It’s huge, but it’s much bigger than Golden Boy Promotions. Everybody should know what to expect from Canelo and what kind of fight they can expect from me”. His reply to the scoring was “Wow!”
Unlike Alvarez, Cotto will have to do it without a title after being stripped of his piece of the middleweight crown this week for refusing to pay a $300,000 sanctioning fee to the WBC. “I think the chemistry between us grows every day”, Cotto said of his trainer. “We will have that talk”.
What rounds did Roach dispute? I doubt that Canelo would have ever agreed to a rehydration limit though, because it would have been very hard for him to keep from gaining back all the water weight that he’d lost.
Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KO) could face Gennady Golovkin on either of those dates, or on neither of them. A third-round knockout of an out-of-shape and desperate James Kirkland last May in Houston looked impressive, but he also suffered a one-sided loss to Floyd Mayweather in September 2014 and was lucky to get a split decision victory over Erislandy Lara in July 2014.
The bout was billed as being the latest in a long rivalry between Mexican and Puerto Rican fighters, but save for action in rounds 4 and 8, the bout was more a technical display of skill than the all-out war a few people expected. “But I’m not afraid of anybody”. From the opening bell I felt I had the advantage and was going to win the fight…I wanted a clear victory.
The question going into the fight was whether Cotto would have enough power to put a dent into Alvarez and make it a fight. “This is my weight class. Golovkin …”
‘Miguel always tells me that if he had me in his corner when he fought Mayweather he would have knocked him out.
It’s a fight both boxers want, and one fight fans are beginning to thirst for.
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De La Hoya said that an Alvarez-Golovkin matchup will happen. “I was fully prepared for what Cotto was going to do in the ring, whether that was take a defence stance or be the aggressor”. The fight was folly sold out and more than eleven thousand boxing fans wildly cheered for the champion. The 12-round fight will be broadcast live from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas this Sunday (Nov. 21) beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET / 8:00 p.m. CT / 7:00 p.m. MT / 6:00 p.m. PT, to select theaters across the U.S.
