Later today, Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya will announce that their star attraction, former jr. middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, has signed a multi-fight deal with HBO. His first fight back with the network will reportedly be on December 6 when he faces former welterweight champion Joshua Clottey. That bout will likely take place at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, where Canelo previously sold roughly 40,000 tickets in his 2013 title unification victory over former champion Austin Trout.
Though some fans may not be quite as excited to hear that Canelo will be fighting Clottey in his next bout, the good news is that his return to HBO opens up the possibility of several other intriguing matchups. The one that stands out the most is a rumored May showdown with current middleweight champion Miguel Cotto. Potential mega-fights with hard-hitting middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and former middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. are also possibilities down the road.
[UPDATE: It should be noted that there's an outside possibility that Canelo could instead face James Kirkland, who was already slated to face Gabriel Rosado on the undercard of Hopkins vs. Kovalev, but for whatever reason, that fight has now been scrapped.]
[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]