Canelo
WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will defend his title belt against Amir Khan on May 7. Reuters/Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Golden Boy Promotions Oscar De La Hoya surprised the boxing world after announcing that WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will defend his title against Amir Khan on May 7 in Las Vegas. However, De La Hoya admitted it was hard to keep such a secret from fans and the media, and was surprised he was able to do so at the day of the announcement.

“In all the years I've been in boxing I have never been able to keep a secret like this one," De La Hoya told ESPN. "We've been working on it for a couple of weeks. It was difficult to but not impossible to keep it quiet."

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It was indeed surprising that Alvarez will take on Khan for his voluntary title defense before the Mexican champ faces unified middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin during a tentatively scheduled match in September. However, the announcement of a Canelo vs Khan bout only came as a surprise because Alvarez had been linked to real middleweight dwellers like Gabriel Rosado and Willie Monroe Jr. Moreover, there is already a growing sense from pundits that Alvarez vs Khan could turn out to be a mismatch, which of course is in favour of the 26-year-old Mexican.

Khan is naturally a welterweight and has never fought more than 150 pounds. In fact, the Bolton fighter’s heaviest welterweight was only at 147 pounds against Luis Collazo and Devon Alexander in 2014, according to Boxrec.

Meanwhile, Alvarez has been fighting at 155 pounds for the last two years. The Mexican redhead has also accustomed himself to rehydrating up to more than 170 pounds during fight night, which was evident in his recent clash with Miguel Cotto.

The only logical reason why Golden Boy Promotions chose Khan as Alvarez’s next opponent is the potential pay-per-view numbers the bout could generate. With Khan’s fan-base in England and Alvarez’s boxing prominence in Mexico, along with the bout set to be on a major Mexican holiday, there is a chance the fight could earn decent PPV buys.

However, Dan Ambrose of Boxing News 24 thinks the Canelo-Khan matchup would only bring in 200,000 in PPV sales, which is slightly better than the 150,000 Golovkin and Alvarez’s stablemate David Lemieux earned in October.

“I don’t see the fight going as well as Canelo’s past PPV fights on HBO like his recent fight against Miguel Cotto, which brought in 900,000 buys last November,” Ambrose wrote. “I don’t even see the fight doing as well as Canelo’s two fights against Erislandy Lara and Alfredo Angulo, both of which brought in around 300,000 PPV buys.”

As for Khan, it may be intriguing to see the British fighter perform at 155, but there is not much to expect when he faces a bigger and stronger Alvarez in the boxing ring. Nevertheless, it is a fight worth waiting for, for both warriors’ true fans.

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