According to Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya, WBC Jr. Middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez is still moving forward with a September 15th return to the ring at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, despite the fact that his previously announced opponent, former welterweight champion Victor Ortiz, was stopped in the 9th round Saturday evening by upset-minded Josesito Lopez. "Canelo is fighting September 15 at the MGM @GoldenBoyBoxing Let me just say it will be huge for boxing on the plans we have for Saul," De La Hoya would post on his official Twitter page.
Alvarez was in attendance to witness the shocking upset, sitting ringside when Ortiz chose to quit on his stool after suffering what was said to be a broken jaw. Alvarez could only smirk and shrug his shoulders as the referee waved off the fight. Regardless, the show will go on according to De La Hoya. The question now, however, is whether or not Alvarez will still be fighting on pay-per-view. Although Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer insisted that they had a contingency plan in place if Ortiz did indeed lose, the list of available opponents that are actually pay-per-view worthy is virtually non-existent at this point.
According to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com, there's a possibility that Alvarez might still be fighting on pay-per-view, but there are also talks of him fighting on regular Showtime or possibly even being involved with boxing's return to network television. "Showtime telling me Canelo still goes Sept. 15 vs TBA. They tell me it could be PPV, live @SHOsports or could even be on CBS," Rafael posted on his Twitter page, noting that the September 15 card could move to Showtime's parent company, CBS. Either way, it looks like boxing fans will still be forced to choose between watching Canelo fight, or the highly-anticipated bout between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Sergio Martinez.
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