LOS ANGELES (July 3, 2013) – “THE ONE: MAYWEATHER VS. CANELO” press tour came to a spectacular conclusion Tuesday night before 10,000 energetic and enthusiastic fans at Nokia Plaza at L.A. LIVE.

Tempers didn’t exactly flare between Floyd Mayweather, Canelo Alvarez and their camps during the lively festivities that included loud music, a mariachi band and colorful streamers shot into the air, but, for the first time during the enormously successful nine-day, 10-city tour, the respective teams were less than completely complimentary of each other on stage.

Golden Boy President Oscar De La Hoya, who was seated next to Canelo at the dais, told the pro-Canelo crowd that he was “convinced Canelo will win.” Fans, who had chanted “Ca-nel-o” throughout, often drowning out the speakers, erupted in cheers. Moments earlier, De La Hoya said he “believed this event will break all the (pay-per-view) records” and that “this will be the best fight in the history of the sport.”

When it was his turn to speak, Canelo reiterated what he had said throughout the tour, that he fully appreciated the fans’ support, that this was “his time and we’re going to win this together.”

Mayweather, who took a verbal shot at De La Hoya at the podium while comparing his (Mayweather’s) resume to Canelo’s, told reporters afterward that “this was the only time on the press tour that there was trash talk.”

“They never said a word in the first nine cities,’’ Mayweather said. “They were totally quiet. Now, all of a sudden we’re in L.A. and they’re talking big like, Canelo is the king. Well, as you saw, if you shoot shots at me, I’ll shoot shots back. How you react to me is how I’ll react to you. You show me respect, I show you respect.

“Every time they give a fighter a huge buildup, I bring them down. It’s so crazy. Canelo is a great, young, strong champion, but he’s never fought on pay-per-view unless he’s been on one of my undercards. I’ve been here before, done it all for 17 years. Does he belong in the ring with me? We’ll just have to see, but I haven’t seen it yet.

“I’m young, strong and rich. He may be number one in his division, but I’m number one in boxing. You’ll see on September 14.”

Mayweather was joined on stage by his mother and three of his young children. “Tonight was great,” he said. “The atmosphere here in Los Angeles was amazing, but this was also a special night for me because it was the first time my mother and children were up here with me.

“My mother, she’s a brilliant person. Today, I was going to write her a one million dollar check. Then, I got to thinking, what she’s given to me, my skills, my life, well I realized what she’s done for me is priceless. A one million dollar check would be a start, but could not in any way repay her.”

Mayweather said he had been playing a lot of basketball on the tour and that he is in great physical condition, but that he’s “in basketball shape, not boxing shape. That comes soon. It’s time to get to work.”

Floyd also said that his company, Mayweather Promotions, would make a donation to the families of the firefighters who were killed by the devastating wildfires near Phoenix earlier this week.

“Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of the people who lost their lives in those fires,” he said. “This was a terribly tragedy and everyone needs to support them. Never take anything for granted.”

Canelo was thrilled to be part of the unprecedented press tour. “This is my job and I enjoyed every moment of it,” he said. “Every city was different, but the atmosphere was always the same. I was so impressed with all the fans in all the cities, especially the ones in Chicago, Mexico City, San Antonio and tonight in Los Angeles. I appreciate all the fans everywhere.”

In Los Angeles, not unlike most of the other cities on the tour, Canelo appeared to be the crowd favorite.

“Canelo-Mania,” as Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer put it, “had hit the United States. I’ve seen it across the nation, in Mexico and in the U.S.,” said Schaefer, who emceed Tuesday’s proceedings. “We had 100,000 fans come out for the press conferences. Based on what we know and the monies generated already, I’m convinced this fight on September 14 is The ONE to break the pay-per-view record (2.5 million buys, set by Mayweather-De La Hoya in 2007).”

“Was I more popular on the tour?” Canelo replied in response to a question during a roundtable session with the media before the outdoor press conference. “It’s not for me to say. It’s up to you to decide.”

As for who has more to lose on Sept. 14, Canelo said, “I don’t know who does, but I’m not going to lose. This is the fight the fans wanted to see. I’ll be ready whether and I have to box and move, or stand and slug. Mayweather is a very difficult fighter, one of the best, and he has a very difficult style.

“We plan to study a lot of tape, especially his first fight with Jose Luis Castillo, who gave him the most problems. I know I haven’t reached my peak yet and that I still have a lot to learn, but I wish it was September 14 already. It’s an honor for me to be fighting on such an important weekend like Mexican Independence Day.”

Canelo didn’t think his weight fluctuated much during the sometimes exhausting tour. “I was able to run on a treadmill at the hotel every couple days,” he said. “I think my weight today is about what it was when we started.”

The freckle-faced, red-haired Canelo, who turns 23 on July 18, was scheduled to fly to Guadalajara Wednesday morning. He will spend a few days at home with his family before returning to Los Angeles early next week where he will finalize preparations for training camp which will take place in the mountains near Big Bear, Calif.

The top priority on his immediate agenda, however, Canelo says is “sleep. That’s the first thing I’ll do.” he said.

“THE ONE: MAYWEATHER VS. CANELO,” a 12-round fight for Canelo’s WBC, WBA and Ring Magazine Super Welterweight World Championships and Mayweather’s WBA Super Welterweight Super World Championship taking place Saturday, Sept. 14 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, is promoted by Mayweather Promotions, Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo Promotions and sponsored by Corona, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Valvoline. The mega-event will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. The event can be heard in Spanish using secondary audio programming (SAP).

Less than 24 hours after going on sale on June 25, the event was sold out, but six MGM Resorts properties will host live closed circuit telecasts of “THE ONE.” Properties showcasing the event include ARIA, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage, Monte Carlo and New York-New York. General admission tickets for the closed circuit telecasts are priced at $100, not including handling fees, and are available for purchase at each individual property’s box office outlets and also are available for purchase by phone with a major credit card at 866-799-7711. Closed circuit ticket sales are limited to eight (8) per person. Tickets also are available through Ticketmaster by calling (800) 745-3000 or online at www.ticketmaster.com.

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For more information, visit www.floydmayweather.com, www.mayweatherpromotions.com, www.goldenboypromotions.com, www.sports.sho.com and www.mgmgrand.com, follow on Twitter at @FloydMayweather, @CaneloOficial, @MayweatherPromo, @GoldenBoyBoxing, @mgmgrand and @SHOSports, follow the conversation using #TheOne and become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FloydMayweather, www.facebook.com/MayweatherPromotions, www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing and www.facebook.com/SHOsports.

LOS ANGELES, July 3 – This Fourth of July, the biggest fireworks show will be on your television set, when FOX Deportes presents a special marathon of Golden Boy Classics featuring the combatants in the biggest fight of 2013…Floyd “Money” Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez who square off in “THE ONE: MAYWEATHER VS. CANELO” on Saturday, Sept. 14 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, live on SHOWTIME PPV®.

At 5:00 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. PT, FOX Deportes will rebroadcast the final episode of ALL ACCESS: Mayweather vs. Guerrero and the action will continue throughout the evening with five hard-hitting matchups featuring Mayweather and Canelo.

Then at 5:30 p.m. ET it’s a trip back to May of 2010, when Alvarez passed his first major test in stopping longtime contender Jose Miguel Cotto to finish their heated nine-round fight.

Next up at 6:30 p.m. ET, fans will watch as Mayweather defeated top pound-for-pound champion Juan Manuel Marquez in their September 2009 showdown.

Following that at 7:30 p.m. ET, it’s a super welterweight world championship bout from June of 2011 when Alvarez returned home to fight in his native Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico and thrilled his fans with a 12th round finish of England’s Ryan Rhodes.

Next up will be a doubleheader of classics never before aired on the series, with Mayweather’s defeat of Oscar De La Hoya in their May 2007 battle airing at 8:30 p.m. ET and Alvarez’s May 2012 clash against future Hall of Famer Sugar Shane Mosley showing at 9:30 p.m. ET.

MEXICO CITY (June 30, 2013) – “THE ONE: Mayweather vs. Canelo” press tour continued on a beautiful summer Sunday in Mexico’s capital city where local police estimated that 32,000 excitable fans turned out at Monumento de los Niños Heroes to greet pound-for-pound boxing king Floyd Mayweather and national hero Canelo Alvarez.

Mexican television network Televisa covered the proceedings, which, like the previous six stops on this unprecedented press tour, was part press conference and part fan rally.

A complete replay of Televisa’s presentation is available for viewing at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/35179179

Quotes from Mayweather and Canelo on Sunday in Mexico City:

Floyd “Money” Mayweather, Eight-Time and Five Division World Champion

“It’s great to be in Mexico. The turnout here and all throughout this tour has been amazing. Canelo has a lot of fans here in Mexico. We expected that, but I don’t fight for one country. I fight for the whole world.

“I have faced a lot of great champions in my career and I can honestly say that my toughest opponents have been Mexican.

“One thing I know is that Mexicans know boxing.

“I got into this sport to be the best and I’m pretty sure Canelo got into the sport to be the best, but the difference is that I was born to win and I will die to win.

I don’t know how this fight is going to play out. That’s what makes this match-up so interesting. We’ll all find out on September 14.

“I’m the pound-for-pound best. I’m ‘The One,’ and on September 14, you’ll see.

“I commend Canelo. He’s a young, strong champion. I congratulate his team, but when you face Floyd Mayweather you face the best.

“Right now I just can’t be beat. Maybe in 20 years he’ll be the king, but not right now. September 14 is just another day for me.”

Canelo Alvarez, Super Welterweight World Champion

“I want to thank everyone for coming out here…all of you. I’ve always said that we had to come to Mexico (on this tour). There’s no other place like Mexico. I’m so happy.

“There are a lot of people who don’t think I’m going to win, but on September 14, you’ll see that I will win.

“I’ve always wanted to be the best in the sport and I’m on my way. I couldn’t let this opportunity go by and I will take advantage of it on September 14.

“I’m always training. I never stop. To win we have to prepare well and not ignore the little things.

“I feel the size of this event. I feel the emotion, but I am calm and on September 14, I’ll be okay.

“I began fighting when I was 15 years old and at that time I wasn’t ready to fight him. Now I’m ready. I always go in with a winning mentality. I’ll prepare to win.”

# # #

“THE ONE: MAYWEATHER VS. CANELO,” a 12-round fight for Canelo’s WBC, WBA and Ring Magazine Super Welterweight World Championships and Mayweather’s WBA Super Welterweight Super World Championship taking place Saturday, Sept. 14 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, is promoted by Mayweather Promotions, Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo Promotions and sponsored by Corona, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Valvoline. The mega-event will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. The event can be heard in Spanish using secondary audio programming (SAP).

Less than 24 hours after going on sale on June 25, the event was sold out, but six MGM Resorts properties will host live closed circuit telecasts of “THE ONE.” Properties showcasing the event include ARIA, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage, Monte Carlo and New York-New York. General admission tickets for the closed circuit telecasts are priced at $100, not including handling fees, and are available for purchase at each individual property’s box office outlets and also are available for purchase by phone with a major credit card at 866-799-7711. Closed circuit ticket sales are limited to eight (8) per person. Tickets also are available through Ticketmaster by calling (800) 745-3000 or online at www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets for closed circuit viewing at ARIA, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage and Monte Carlo are now on sale. Tickets for the closed circuit telecast at New York-New York will go on sale on Monday, July 1 at 3:00 p.m. ET/Noon PT.

For more information, visit www.floydmayweather.com, www.mayweatherpromotions.com, www.goldenboypromotions.com, www.sports.sho.com and www.mgmgrand.com, follow on Twitter at @FloydMayweather, @CaneloOficial, @MayweatherPromo, @GoldenBoyBoxing, @mgmgrand and @SHOSports, follow the conversation using #TheOne and become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FloydMayweather, www.facebook.com/MayweatherPromotions, www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing and www.facebook.com/SHOsports.

DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS (July 1, 2013) – Fans remained the biggest winners as “THE ONE: MAYWEATHER VS. CANELO” press tour continued Monday with two stops in Texas.

In Houston, a couple hundred fans began lining up at 3:00 a.m. for a press conference that started at 1:00 p.m. By the time the press conference officially commenced at Union Station At Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros, an overflow crowd of over 1,000 fans had filled the stadium’s grand lobby to beyond capacity.

The nine-day, 10-city tour continued Monday night at The Alamo in San Antonio. The press conference didn’t start until 6:00 p.m., but fans were in line by 7:00 a.m. Due to a flight delay, Mayweather was an hour and forty-five minutes late and by the time he arrived, Canelo had come and gone.

However, Mayweather provided a little glimpse into his future, saying he may fight more than the five more times after which he has previously said he would retire.

“After my five more fights, guess what? I think after 49-0 we may stay in this sport a little longer,” he said. “This September 14, it’s just another walk in the park.”

As he has throughout the tour, Mayweather thanked the fans. “There is no city like San Antonio,” he told the approximately 5,000 in attendance. “You fans have been brilliant over the years. Without San Antonio, Floyd Mayweather wouldn’t be where he’s at today. If you don’t know, Mayweather loves Mexico. Mexican and Latino fans, you know boxing.

“I’m going to sign a lot of autographs and take a lot of pictures because I’m late. That’s the least I can do for you guys.”

Canelo was his usual classy self at the podium, but he took a couple jabs at Mayweather for being tardy.

“Thank you everybody for being here. It’s a great honor for me to be here for a second time. Last time I was treated like I was at home and that’s what I feel like again – like I’m at home.”

“I know many of you have been here since seven in the morning. At six o’clock the press conference was supposed to start, and that’s why I’m here at six o’clock – because I respect you, because you guys respect boxing. There are Mayweather fans here who also have been here since very early. I’m here for them too.”

“He (Mayweather) thinks all the boxers have to respect him and he intimidates everybody, but he doesn’t intimidate me. I look forward to the fight.’’

“THE ONE: MAYWEATHER VS. CANELO,” a 12-round fight for Canelo’s WBC, WBA and Ring Magazine Super Welterweight World Championships and Mayweather’s WBA Super Welterweight Super World Championship taking place Saturday, Sept. 14 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, is promoted by Mayweather Promotions, Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo Promotions and sponsored by Corona, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Valvoline. The mega-event will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. The event can be heard in Spanish using secondary audio programming (SAP).

Less than 24 hours after going on sale on June 25, the event was sold out, but six MGM Resorts properties will host live closed circuit telecasts of “THE ONE.” Properties showcasing the event include ARIA, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage, Monte Carlo and New York-New York. General admission tickets for the closed circuit telecasts are priced at $100, not including handling fees, and are available for purchase at each individual property’s box office outlets and also are available for purchase by phone with a major credit card at 866-799-7711. Closed circuit ticket sales are limited to eight (8) per person. Tickets also are available through Ticketmaster by calling (800) 745-3000 or online at www.ticketmaster.com.

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For more information, visit www.floydmayweather.com, www.mayweatherpromotions.com, www.goldenboypromotions.com, www.sports.sho.com and www.mgmgrand.com, follow on Twitter at @FloydMayweather, @CaneloOficial, @MayweatherPromo, @GoldenBoyBoxing, @mgmgrand and @SHOSports, follow the conversation using #TheOne and become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FloydMayweather, www.facebook.com/MayweatherPromotions, www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing and www.facebook.com/SHOsports.

Video streaming by Ustream

This Tuesday Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez hit Phoenix as part of their 11-city tour. The festivities will take place at the Herberger Theater and begin promptlt at 11am pt

Fans are encouraged to arrive early as entry into each event is available on a first come, first served basis!

Tuesday, July 2

Phoenix, AZ

Location: Herberger Theater

222 East Monroe Street

Phoenix, AZ 85004

Fan Arrival Time: 10:00 a.m. PT

Press Conference Begins: 11:00 a.m. PT

LAS VEGAS (June 28) – Tickets for closed circuit telecasts of “THE ONE: Mayweather vs. Canelo,” the September 14 mega-fight betweenFloyd “Money” Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez which will be produced and distributed by SHOWTIME PPV® from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, at ARIA, Mandalay Bay, Mirage and Monte Carlo go on sale today at 7:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT. Tickets for the closed circuit telecast at New York-New York will go on sale on Monday, July 1 at 3:00 p.m. ET/Noon PT

General admission tickets for the closed circuit telecasts are priced at $100, not including handling fees, and will be available at each individual property’s box office outlets and also will be available for purchase by phone with a major credit card at 866-799-7711. Closed circuit ticket sales are limited to eight (8) per person. Tickets for closed circuit viewing also are available through Ticketmaster by calling (800) 745-3000 or online at www.ticketmaster.com.

Closed circuit tickets for the MGM Grand telecast are on sale now.

“The next best thing to being inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena on fight night is to watch the fight with other boxing fans on closed circuit in Las Vegas,” said Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe. “We urge boxing fans from across the country and around the world to get their tickets quickly as we anticipate that these closed circuit telecasts will sell out just like the fight itself did.”

“With every ticket at the MGM Grand Garden Arena sold out for ‘THE ONE,’ the next best way for those in Las Vegas or wishing to travel there for the big-fight experience is seeing it via closed circuit,” said Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. “Fans can arrive early in the week, go to all the pre-fight events that are open to the public and then watch the fight on Saturday night. It’s a great way to experience a mega-event like this.”

“THE ONE: MAYWEATHER VS. CANELO,” a 12-round fight for Canelo’s WBC, WBA and Ring Magazine Super Welterweight World Championships and Mayweather’s WBA Super Welterweight Super World Championship taking place Saturday, Sept. 14 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, is promoted by Mayweather Promotions, Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo Promotions and sponsored by Corona, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Valvoline. The mega-event will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. The event can be heard in Spanish using secondary audio programming (SAP).

For more information, visit www.floydmayweather.com, www.mayweatherpromotions.com, www.goldenboypromotions.com, www.sports.sho.com and www.mgmgrand.com, follow on Twitter at @FloydMayweather, @CaneloOficial, @MayweatherPromo, @GoldenBoyBoxing, @mgmgrand and @SHOSports, follow the conversation using #TheOne or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FloydMayweather, www.facebook.com/MayweatherPromotions, www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing and www.facebook.com/SHOboxing.

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, the September 14th mega fight between Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez will shatter the all-time records for gate receipts for a prize fight.

Golden Boy Promotions chief executive Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com the fight will generate a minimum of $18,647,000 in ticket sales and “it could go up to a little shy of $19 million depending on the number of comps that are given out. It’s going to be the record. The MGM is calculating and has to do the ticket settlement, but it will definitely be the record.”

“Everything is gigantic with this fight,” Schaefer said from Atlanta, where he was Thursday for stop No. 5 on an 11-city media tour to promote the fight. “Two months out and you can say within 2 percent what the gate is. The more comps, the less the gross will be but the casino gets a certain number of comps, the fighters get a certain number of comps, Showtime and Showtime Pay-Per-View get some, the sponsors get some. I have to go through the list. The gate number will go up from where we are at now and it’s already the record. I don’t want to have too many comps.”

Said Mayweather: “This sellout doesn’t surprise me because this is what happens when the best fights the best. I want to thank all the fans for their support. They’re going to see a hell of a show on Sept. 14.”

Schaefer said the fight also has set the record for a guarantee on national closed circuit revenue, which is derived from people who pay to watch the fight at bars and restaurants. He said De La Hoya-Mayweather generated a record $3 million guarantee and that the Mayweather-Alvarez closed-circuit rights went for $4 million.

Although Schaefer declined to disclose the exact figure, he said the Mexican television rights for Mayweather-Alvarez that went to Televisa brought “four times as much as they did for De La Hoya-Mayweather. That just shows you how big Canelo is in Mexico.”

“These lofty records, you have to wonder if they will ever be broken. I am always hopeful because records are here to be broken,” said Schaefer, who will be in Miami for stop No. 6 on the media tour. “The gate record has fallen. The closed-circuit record has fallen for the guarantee. I’m really proud of what we have accomplished as a company to set the record and then break the record. I’m going to try to break it again. That’s what motivates me. It shows how healthy the sport is.”

“I’m not going to say the pay-per-view record is going to fall but the more I see the turnout at these tour stops and the passion I have seen day after day from the fans, the more I think we have a shot,” he said.

LOS ANGELES, June 26, 2013 – As soon as the September 14 showdown between Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez was announced, it became the biggest fight of 2013 and the hottest ticket in town. How hot? Less than 24 hours after going on sale on Tuesday, every ticket to the highly anticipated fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena was sold, confirming that when it comes to “THE ONE,” which will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV, the entire world will be watching.

In response to the rapid live gate sellout, Mayweather Promotions, Golden Boy Promotions, Canelo Promotions and MGM Resorts International are pleased to announce that six MGM Resorts properties will host live closed circuit telecasts of “THE ONE.” Properties showcasing the event include ARIA, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage, Monte Carlo and New York-New York.

General admission tickets for the closed circuit telecasts are priced at $100, not including handling fees, and will be available for purchase at each individual property’s box office outlets and also will be available for purchase by phone with a major credit card at 866-799-7711. Closed circuit ticket sales are limited to eight (8) per person. Tickets also will be available through Ticketmaster by calling (800) 745-3000 or online at www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets for closed circuit viewing at MGM Grand go on sale Friday, June 28 at 3:00 p.m. ET/Noon PT. Information regarding availability of closed circuit tickets at the five other properties will be announced in the near future.

“This sell out doesn’t surprise me because this is what happens when the best fights the best,” said Mayweather. “I want to thank all the fans for their support. They’re going to see a hell of a show on September 14, whether it’s at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, on closed circuit in Las Vegas or on SHOWTIME Pay-Per-View.”

“Thank you to everyone who bought tickets to this event,” said Alvarez. “I know I will have plenty of support in the MGM Grand Garden Arena on September 14. This is the biggest night of my career, I will be at my best for it and I will win.”

“We’re truly excited that the fans have spoken,” said Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions. “This is a tremendous fight and the quick sellout is another indication that this is the fight fans want to see. Both fighters thank the fans for their tremendous support.”

“The demand for tickets, even before they went on sale, was unprecedented,” said Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. “This is the fight the world wanted, we gave it to the fans, and they responded. September 14 will be the biggest night boxing has seen in years. We urge fans to get their closed circuit tickets before they sell out as well!”

“THE ONE: MAYWEATHER VS. CANELO,” a 12-round fight for Canelo’s WBC, WBA and Ring Magazine Super Welterweight World Championships and Mayweather’s WBA Super Welterweight Super World Championship taking place Saturday, Sept. 14 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, is promoted by Mayweather Promotions, Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo Promotions and sponsored by Corona, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Valvoline. The mega-event will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. The event can be heard in Spanish using secondary audio programming (SAP).

For more information, visit www.floydmayweather.com, www.mayweatherpromotions.com, www.goldenboypromotions.com, www.sports.sho.com and www.mgmgrand.com, follow on Twitter at @FloydMayweather, @CaneloOficial, @MayweatherPromo, @GoldenBoyBoxing, @mgmgrand and @SHOSports, follow the conversation using #TheOne or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FloydMayweather, www.facebook.com/MayweatherPromotions, www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing and www.facebook.com/SHOsports.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (June 26, 2013) – Floyd “Money” Mayweather went home Wednesday and an estimated 2,000 enthusiastic fans, friends and family members were there to see the legendary fighter and his upcoming opponent, Canelo Alvarez, at Houseman Field in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The third stop of an unprecedented 11-city, two-country, nine-day media blitz to promote Mayweather’s eagerly anticipated Saturday, Sept. 14 showdown with Alvarez at the MGM Grand Garden Arena which will be produced and distributed by SHOWTIME PPV® had the look and feel of a state fair or carnival. There was a marching band, cotton candy, snow cones, and bouncy houses to play in.

Those in attendance included 300 children who were bussed in from the Grand Rapids Public School System summer program. Mayweather is an alumni of the Grand Rapids school system.

Immediately following the event, Mayweather, Canelo and their teams flew to Chicago where they will host the second of today’s two events at The Chicago Theatre (5:00 p.m. CT). The media tour continues tomorrow, Thursday, June 27, at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta.

Mayweather showed his appreciation, “To the city of Grand Rapids, you believed in me when no one else would. I want to thank all my fans and Canelo’s fans, but one thing we know, fans can’t fight for you.’’
“THE ONE: MAYWEATHER VS. CANELO,” a 12-round fight for Canelo’s WBC, WBA and Ring Magazine Super Welterweight World Championships and Mayweather’s WBA Super Welterweight Super World Championship taking place Saturday, Sept. 14 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, is promoted by Mayweather Promotions, Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo Promotions and sponsored by Corona, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Valvoline. The mega-event will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. The event can be heard in Spanish using secondary audio programming (SAP).

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 25, 2013) – A capacity crowd of well-over 1,000 people filled Washington, D.C.’s historic Howard Theatre on Tuesday for the second stop of the unprecedented 11-city, two-country media tour for “THE ONE: MAYWEATHER VS. CANELO.”

Eight-Time, Five-Division World Champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather and Super Welterweight World Champion Canelo Alvarez are in the midst of their nine-day tour to discuss their Saturday, September 14 mega-fight from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, live on SHOWTIME PPV®.

Mayweather showed his appreciation for his strong following in D.C., signing autographs for over two hours and posing for pictures with fans.

Tickets priced at $2,000, $1,500, $1,000, $600 and $350, not including applicable service charges and taxes, with a total ticket limit of 12 per person (a limit of 10 per person at the $2,000, $1,500, $1,000 and $600 price levels and a limit of two [2] per person at the $350 price level), are on sale now. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets also will be available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

The media tour continues tomorrow, Wednesday, June 26, with stops in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Chicago.

FLOYD MAYWEATHER:
“D.C. is a fight town. It’s been so kind to me in my career. The fans have supported me here since I turned pro and today’s turnout was nothing different.

“Canelo is a young, strong champ. It’s obvious he’s done something right to get to this level. He’s a guy I know I can’t overlook. When guys face Floyd Mayweather it’s a total different level. I’m pretty sure he’ll be in tip-top condition. I need to go out there and be at my best and stick to the game plan.

“To be the best you have to fight the best and Canelo is one of the best fighters out there at this particular time. That’s why this fight is called ‘THE ONE.’”

CANELO ALVAREZ:
“Everything is different…big name, clever fighter. It’s the best fighter, the best venue, the best network. Austin Trout was a good fighter, but this is different. You can see with everyone here with the fans and the media. It’s not just a fight, but a big event.

“This was the next step to get Mayweather. I’m the type of fighter that if you give me someone who is better than me, it’s motivating. It gets the real Canelo. Trout was OK. He was a good fighter, but he didn’t impose his will on me. He didn’t bring out the best Canelo. Mayweather is the guy.”

“THE ONE: MAYWEATHER VS. CANELO,” a 12-round fight for Canelo’s WBC, WBA and Ring Magazine Super Welterweight World Championships and Mayweather’s WBA Super Welterweight Super World Championship taking place Saturday, Sept. 14 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, is promoted by Mayweather Promotions, Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo Promotions and sponsored by Corona, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Valvoline. The mega-event will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. The event can be heard in Spanish using secondary audio programming (SAP).

NEW YORK (June 24, 2013) – “THE ONE” we’ve been waiting for, Floyd “Money” Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez, was formally announced at a press conference in front of thousands of flag-waving, enthusiastic fans on a hot, summer Monday in Times Square in New York City. The streets were lined with camera-clicking fans for hours, while others watched the first stop of an 11-city, two-country, nine-day media tour that continues Tuesday in Washington, D.C. from their office windows high above “The Crossroads of the World.”

The fighters were introduced individually, posed for the fans and news cameras, produced an intense face-off and spoke at the podium.

“THE ONE: MAYWEATHER VS. CANELO” is a compelling collision of two unbeaten, popular prizefighters with the WBC, WBA Super, WBA and Ring Magazine Super Welterweight World Championships all on the line. Mayweather (44-0, 26 KO’s) is the sport’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter and an Eight-Time and Five-Division World Champion. Mexican superstar and Super Welterweight World Champion Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) is the sport’s No. 1 rising star. The winner of the scheduled 12-round bout on Saturday, Sept. 14 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, live on SHOWTIME PPV®, will definitely be “THE ONE’’ in boxing.

The event is promoted by Mayweather Promotions, Golden Boy Promotion and Canelo Promotions, sponsored by Corona, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Valvoline and will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV® at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. It can be heard in Spanish using secondary audio programming (SAP).

Tickets priced at $2,000, $1,500, $1,000, $600 and $350, not including applicable service charges and taxes, with a total ticket limit of 12 per person (a limit of 10 per person at the $2,000, $1,500, $1,000 and $600 price levels and a limit of two [2] per person at the $350 price level), go on sale tomorrow, Tuesday, June 25 at 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets also will be available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

What Mayweather and Canelo as well as executives Leonard Ellerbe, Richard Schaefer, Oscar De La Hoya, Stephen Espinoza and Canelo’s trainer, Chepo Reynoso, said Monday:

Floyd Mayweather, Eight-Time And Five-Division World Champion

“Canelo, I appreciate you for taking this fight. Let’s give the fans what they want to see on September 14.

“Mexico has produced some legendary champions. I take my hat off to them. I respect the country of Mexico, but something I’ve always enjoyed about the sport of boxing is that my fans can’t fight for me and his fans can’t fight for him.

“I’m truly thankful to the fans, without the fans I wouldn’t be where I am.

“Golden Boy Promotions, we love working hand-in-hand with you guys. Mayweather Promotions, our company is still building. We’ve got young champions on the rise. I have to thank SHOWTIME; we’re going to do some record-breaking things. I have to thank CBS. To all the executives, I want to thank you all for believing in me and my skills.”

“I want to thank Canelo’s fans, you guys have stood behind him. He’s a true champion, a young, strong champion and he’s earned his right to be up here with me. He’s done something right to get to this level.

“I can’t wait to go out there and perform. I’m about to go to camp. Physically I’m always ready, but I’m looking for an exciting fight on September 14.

“It has truly been an amazing ride. I’m blessed to be in the sport of boxing and be at the top for 17 years.

“There’s no city like New York City. As a matter of fact, they should put a ring right here in Times Square and let us do it today.

“On September 14, all we want to do is give the fans excitement. That’s what it’s all about. I just want to give the fans a hell of a fight.

“Canelo is a young strong champion. He’s obviously done something right to be at this level. He’s a guy that I can’t overlook. I’ve got to go out there and fight the best fight.

“When guys face me, it’s a totally different level. I’m sure he’s going to be in tip top condition and give the fans a great show.

“Come September 14, it’s the best versus the best. ‘THE ONE.’ He’s a guy I know I can’t overlook, but I’ve been here before. I have a lot of experience. One thing I don’t do is play into the crowd. I understand that this is my job. I know what it takes in a fight of this magnitude and I’m going to continue to dedicate myself to my craft and be the best that I can be. I dedicated my whole life to be at the pinnacle and to face the best.

“The earth is my turf. You can put me in any ring and I’ll always come out victorious. The car won’t stop now. Let’s keep the car rolling. It’s gong to be a hell of a fight on September 14.”

Canelo Alvarez, Super Welterweight World Champion

“Good afternoon, New York. Thank you all for being here and for your support. With this fight, everybody’s going to win. In boxing everybody has their time, and this is my time. Everybody knows that Floyd’s the best without question, but it’s my time. We’re going to win.

“I’m younger and bigger, which are very important keys, but you must remember that Floyd is a very intelligent fighter, but I’m going to have the right game plan.

“Obviously, this is my biggest fight, but I’ve visualized it and I’ve prepared my mind for it for a while.

“I appreciate all the fans for all of their incredible support. I always have. I’m very gratified to be here today, to see this turnout and to have so many fans supporting for me. I’ll be ready on September 14 and give them all what they want to see.’’

Leonard Ellerbe, CEO, Mayweather Promotions

“We would like to thank each and every one of you for coming out today to support this tremendous event that we’re having on September 14. We have a young, great fighter in Canelo Alvarez who thinks that he’s ‘THE ONE’ going up against the best fighter in the world and who’s been the best fighter in the world for a number of years. He is ‘THE ONE.’

“This fight we feel will break records all over the world. The reason Floyd wanted to take this fight is because of you, the fans, and come September 14 that’s what you will get, a great, great fight.”

Richard Schaefer, CEO, Golden Boy Promotions

“Wow, New York, you did it again…huge, huge crowd here in Times Square! Since 2007, I’ve had the pleasure to work with Floyd and his team. Here in New York, we were at RockefellerPlaza, we were at the EmpireStateBuilding and now here at Times Square, but wouldn’t you agree, Floyd, that this is the best one yet?

“This is the one fight everybody wanted. The one fight everybody waited for. Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather is the one…he is highest-paid one, he’s the best one, he’s the pound for pound one, he’s the one in a generation and maybe the one in a lifetime, but will he be ‘THE ONE’ at the end of September 14 or will we have the next one, the new one, Canelo Alvarez?

“Canelo is the Mexican James Dean. He has a cult-like following. He’s the one Mexico has been waiting for. He’s the one who will give Mayweather the biggest test of his career. He’s the younger one, he’s the bigger one, he is the stronger one…and he is the better looking one. Sorry Floyd, just kidding.

“The one thing I know is that September 14 the world will be watching who will be ‘THE ONE.’ Make sure if you can’t be live at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas – tickets will go on sale tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. at Ticketmaster or at MGM – you watch it live on SHOWTIME Pay-Per-View.

“I want to quickly thank our sponsors, most of all Corona, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Valvoline for putting their efforts behind this great fight.

“This is without doubt the single biggest fight we have promoted. This is a record-breaker and if you have watched boxing before, I know you’ll watch this fight and if you haven’t make sure you don’t miss it September 14. The fight will be shown in movie theaters across the nation as well on over 400 screens which is something that is exclusive to Mayweather fights.”

Oscar De La Hoya, President, Golden Boy Promotions

“New York, are you ready? On September 14 we will have not a good fight, but a great fight. Floyd Mayweather, the pound-for-pound champion of the world against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez who is Mexico’s biggest sports figure and Mexico’s biggest icon.”

Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President and General Manager, SHOWTIME Sports

“At SHOWTIME our goal is very simple: we want to bring you the most exciting, the most action-packed fights with boxing’s biggest stars. That’s exactly what SHOWTIME has become known for. In just the last few weeks, SHOWTIME has brought you Alfredo Angulo, Josesito Lopez, Marcos Maidana, Danny Garcia, Peter Quillin, Adrien Broner and Amir Khan. Now, SHOWTIME Pay-Per-View is bringing you the two biggest stars in the sport, Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez.

“SHOWTIME Pay-Per-View is proud to be bringing you, ‘THE ONE: Mayweather vs. Canelo,’ the one fight you’ve all been waiting for. In every sport, there are certain, rare occasions when you have the best against the best. The Super Bowl, The Final Four, College Football’s National Championship…September 14 will be one of those occasions with the two biggest stars in the sport and the two biggest fan bases. We have America’s number one fighter versus Mexico’s number one fighter. We have the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the sport versus the number one new star in the sport.

“This is a must-see event and as usual SHOWTIME and SHOWTIME Pay-Per-View will be there every step of the way. From today’s press conference that is being streamed on SHOWTIME’s website to all the other remaining stops on the tour, make sure you check out SHOWTIME’s website for daily updates. As usual, ALL ACCESS will take you behind the scenes and we will be announcing the schedule for ALL ACCESS very shortly. We will see you all on September 14.”

Jose “Chepo” Reynoso, Manager of Canelo

“I just want to say we are ready for this fight. Canelo is going to train like he always does. Viva Mexico!”

For more information, visit www.floydmayweather.com, www.mayweatherpromotions.com, www.goldenboypromotions.com, www.sports.sho.com and www.mgmgrand.com, follow on Twitter at @FloydMayweather, @CaneloOficial, @MayweatherPromo, @GoldenBoyBoxing, @mgmgrand and @SHOSports, follow the conversation using #TheOne or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FloydMayweather, www.facebook.com/MayweatherPromotions, www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing and www.facebook.com/SHOsports.

LAS VEGAS (June 24, 2013) – The most compelling and anticipated fight in boxing is officially set as the sport’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter, undefeated Eight-Time, Five-Division World Champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather will face undefeated Mexican star and Super Welterweight World Champion Canelo Alvarez in “THE ONE: MAYWEATHER VS. CANELO” on Saturday, Sept. 14 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, live on SHOWTIME PPV®.

The marquee matchup was initially announced by Mayweather via his Twitter account on May 29 setting the sports world abuzz. The bout will be a Super Welterweight World Championship contested for the WBC, WBA Super, WBA and Ring Magazine Super Welterweight World Championships on Mexican Independence Day weekend, one of the two biggest weekends on the boxing calendar. The fight will be promoted by Mayweather Promotions, Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo Promotions.

The event is sponsored by Corona, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Valvoline and will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. The event can be heard in Spanish using secondary audio programming (SAP).

Tickets priced at $2,000, $1,500, $1,000, $600 and $350, not including applicable service charges and taxes, with a total ticket limit of 12 per person (a limit of 10 per person at the $2,000, $1,500, $1,000 and $600 price levels and a limit of two [2] per person at the $350 price level), go on sale Tuesday, June 25 at 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 a.m. PT. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets also will be available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

Mayweather, who usually campaigns at 147 pounds, chose the younger and bigger Canelo as his opponent for the second bout of his new contract with Showtime Networks Inc. and its parent company, CBS Corporation.

“I picked Canelo because he deserves the chance and is the best opponent possible for me at this time,” said Mayweather, who is coming off of a near shutout win on May 4 over Six-Time and Four-Division World Champion Robert Guerrero. “When I signed my new deal with Showtime and CBS, I said I was going to stay active and fight the best fighters and I am keeping my word. I looked at several different fighters and decided to pick Canelo because he can give me a great fight and one the fans are going to appreciate. Sure it’s a risk to fight a guy that is younger and bigger than me, but I love taking risks. Be ready because I’m in fantastic shape and I’m going to train even harder for this fight than I did for my last one. He might be a big, young, strong and talented champion, but my experience and work ethic make me believe that I’m that much better and no one in boxing can beat me right now.”

Canelo is coming off of a unanimous decision win over then WBA World Champion Austin Trout in front of a sold-out crowd of nearly 40,000 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas on April 20. The young champion has been soliciting to fight Mayweather for some time and is excited to challenge boxing’s best fighter in what could be a career-defining fight for the Mexican superstar.

“I’m ready for the big challenges and now I have to prove it against Floyd Mayweather on September 14,” said Canelo. “I said that I wanted to fight the best and here I am in front of the best pound-for-pound fighter, who I respect for his achievements, but on September 14, I will write a new page in boxing history because I’m going to be victorious. This fight is for all of my fans, my family and of course for Mexico because we’re fighting on the weekend of Mexico’s Independence. I’ve waited so long for this and my only option is to WIN!”

“It’s a done deal and I commend Floyd for selecting Canelo Alvarez as his next challenge,” said Leonard Ellerbe, CEO Mayweather Promotions. “Floyd is a great champion who has earned the right to control the destiny of his career. To select a young, strong and bigger opponent in Canelo, who has proven he is at the championship level with his success to date, is just another indication of Floyd’s love for the sport and the fans that embrace him every time he steps in the ring. It’s his legacy on the line September 14 and I have no doubt that he will be victorious again.”

“This is THE ONE. The one fight everyone wants to see as Mayweather is the best ONE ever and no ONE has ever been able to find a way to beat him,” said Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. “Will he stay undefeated or will Canelo be the first ONE to beat him? My hat goes off to Floyd for accepting the challenge of a young, strong and undefeated fighter like Canelo and my hat goes off to Canelo for agreeing to fight the best fighter in the world. These are modern day gladiators who know how to entertain and on September 14, the world will stop and watch to see who will be THE ONE! Mayweather vs. Canelo is without doubt ONE of the biggest boxing events of all-time.”

“The response to the announcement of this event, from all corners of sports and entertainment, has been overwhelming,” said Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president and general manager, SHOWTIME Sports. “It’s a natural response when the two most skilled and most popular athletes in a sport face off against each other. I commend both Floyd and Canelo for making the best fight possible. Neither man ever waivered in their desire to give the fans what they’ve been clamoring for.”

“We look forward to hosting one of the biggest boxing events in recent years over Mexican Independence Day weekend,” said Richard Sturm, president of sports and entertainment for MGM Resorts International. “These two undefeated athletes will put on a spectacular show, guaranteeing boxing fans a thrilling, action-packed night from the MGM Grand Garden Arena.”

Undefeated Floyd “Money” Mayweather, (44-0, 26 KO’s), an eight-time world champion in five weight divisions, remains boxing’s biggest attraction, wowing crowds and generating remarkable pay-per-view numbers every time he steps into the ring. During Mayweather’s already extraordinary career, he has amassed wins over world champions including Genaro Hernandez, Diego Corrales, Jose Luis Castillo, Arturo Gatti, Zab Judah, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Juan Manuel Marquez, Shane Mosley, Victor Ortiz, Miguel Cotto and most recently Robert Guerrero, marking the 44th win of his storied career. Over the course of his participation in pay-per-view events Mayweather has generated more than 10.6 million buys and nearly $650 million in pay-per-view revenue. He averages more than one million pay-per-view buys per event, the highest pay-per-view buy average of any boxer in history. Mayweather, the world’s highest paid athlete in any sport (Sports Illustrated, 2013), co-headlined the single biggest pay-per-view boxing event in history when he fought Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. In addition, Mayweather has appeared in the sport’s four biggest non-heavyweight pay-per-view events.

At only 22 years of age, the pride of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, Canelo Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KO’s) has emerged as a Mexican icon, standing side-by-side with his country’s greatest sporting legends. His fights on Mexican television network Televisa routinely garner record ratings. In Sept. 2012, Canelo set a new ratings record for boxing on SHOWTIME in his first bout on the network. A fighting phenom, Canelo has fought professionally since 2005 when he was only 15 years old. The powerful puncher tore through all comers on the local circuit in Mexico before winning the NABF welterweight title in 2009. He then began his attack on the international boxing scene. In 2010, Canelo had a breakout year with victories over Jose Miguel Cotto, Luciano Cuello and former World Champions Carlos Baldomir and Lovemore N’dou. By 2011, he earned his first world championship by defeating Matthew Hatton for the WBC Super Welterweight World Championship. Canelo has since defended his title successfully six times defeating Ryan Rhodes, Alfonso Gomez, Kermit Cintron, Sugar Shane Mosley, Josesito Lopez and, most recently, with a spirited unanimous decision win over Austin Trout, setting up his fight against Mayweather.

The MGM Grand Garden Arena is home to concerts, championship boxing and premier sporting and special events. The Arena offers comfortable seating for as many as 16,800 with excellent sightlines and state-of-the-art acoustics, lighting and sound. Prominent events to date have included world championship fights between Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson as well as Oscar de la Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Marquez; and concerts by The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Bette Midler, George Strait, Janet Jackson, Phil Collins, Billy Joel, U2, Lady Gaga, Sting, Coldplay, Alicia Keys, Jimmy Buffett and the Barbra Streisand Millennium Concert. The MGM Grand Garden Arena also is home to the annual shows including Academy of Country Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, iHeartRadio Music Festival and the Frozen Fury NHL pre-season game which features the Los Angeles Kings vs. Colorado Avalanche.

Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CBS Corporation, owns and operates the premium television networks SHOWTIME®, THE MOVIE CHANNEL™ and FLIX®, as well as the multiplex channels SHOWTIME 2™, SHOWTIME® SHOWCASE, SHOWTIME EXTREME®, SHOWTIME BEYOND®, SHOWTIME NEXT®, SHOWTIME WOMEN®, SHOWTIME FAMILY ZONE® and THE MOVIE CHANNEL™ XTRA. SNI also offers SHOWTIME HD™, THE MOVIE CHANNEL™ HD, SHOWTIME ON DEMAND®, FLIX ON DEMAND® and THE MOVIE CHANNEL™ ON DEMAND, and the network’s authentication service SHOWTIME ANYTIME®. SNI also manages Smithsonian Networks™, a joint venture between SNI and the Smithsonian Institution, which offers Smithsonian Channel™. All SNI feeds provide enhanced sound using Dolby Digital 5.1. SNI markets and distributes sports and entertainment events for exhibition to subscribers on a pay-per-view basis through SHOWTIME PPV®.

For more information, visit www.floydmayweather.com, www.mayweatherpromotions.com, www.goldenboypromotions.com, www.sports.sho.com and www.mgmgrand.com, follow on Twitter at @FloydMayweather, @CaneloOficial, @MayweatherPromo, @GoldenBoyBoxing, @mgmgrand and @SHOSports, follow the conversation using #TheOne or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FloydMayweather, www.facebook.com/MayweatherPromotions, www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing and www.facebook.com/SHOsports.

LAS VEGAS, June 21 – It all started with a Tweet on May 29…

“I chose my opponent for September 14,” wrote Floyd “Money” Mayweather, “and it’s Canelo Alvarez. I’m giving the fans what they want. It will be at the MGM Grand.”

With that, the biggest fight of 2013 became a reality, as Mayweather, boxing’s reigning pound for pound king, will put his perfect 44-0 record on the line against Mexican superstar and undefeated Canelo in a Super Welterweight World Championship Unification bout. Tickets for the highly anticipated mega-fight go on sale Tuesday, June 25 at 1:00 p.m. ET/10:00 p.m. PT.

Tickets will be priced at $2,000, $1,500, $1,000, $600 and $350, not including applicable service charges, with a total ticket limit of 12 per person, a limit of 10 per person at the $2,000, $1,500, $1,000, $600 and $350 price levels and a limit of two per person at the $350 price level. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets will also be available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

Mayweather vs. Canelo, a 12-round fight for Canelo’s WBC, WBA and Ring Magazine Super Welterweight World Championships and Mayweather’s WBA Super Welterweight Super World Championship taking place Saturday, Sept. 14 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, is promoted by Mayweather Promotions, Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo Promotions and sponsored by Corona, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Valvoline. The mega-event will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. The event can be heard in Spanish using secondary audio programming (SAP).

THE PREFIGHT TALE OF THE TAPE

HOME COUNTRY
Mayweather: United States
Canelo: Mexico

WINS
Mayweather: 44
Canelo: 42

KNOCKOUTS
Mayweather: 26
Canelo: 30

LOSSES
Mayweather: 0
Canelo: 0

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Mayweather: 8
Canelo: 3

WORLD TITLE FIGHT WINS
Mayweather: 21
Canelo: 7

COMMON OPPONENTS
Shane Mosley: Mayweather W12/Canelo W12
Carlos Baldomir: Mayweather W12/Canelo KO6

AGE
Mayweather: 36
Canelo: 22

TWITTER FOLLOWERS
Mayweather: 4,024,541 (as of Friday, June 21)
Canelo: 231,164 (as of Friday, June 21)

ATTENDANCE FOR LAST FIGHT
Mayweather: 15,880
Canelo: 39,472

GOAL ON SEPTEMBER 14
Mayweather: Win
Canelo: Win

For more information, visit www.floydmayweather.com, www.mayweatherpromotions.com, www.goldenboypromotions.com, www.sports.sho.com and www.mgmgrand.com, follow on Twitter at @FloydMayweather, @CaneloOficial, @MayweatherPromo, @GoldenBoyBoxing, @mgmgrand and @SHOSports or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FloydMayweather, www.facebook.com/MayweatherPromotions, www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing and www.facebook.com/SHOsports.

NEW YORK (June 18, 2013) – News spread like wildfire last week when details of the upcoming 11-city, two-country media tour to officially announce the September 14 mega-fight between Eight-Time, Five-Division World Champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather and Unified Super Welterweight World Champion Canelo Alvarez were made public.

Exact locations in each city as well as press conference start times are set and fans are encouraged to arrive early as entry into each event is available on a first come, first served basis.

**PLEASE NOTE: Media arrival times and locations are forthcoming.

Monday, June 24
New York, NY
Location: Times Square
Pedestrian Walk on Broadway Between 46th & 47th Streets
New York, NY 10036
Fan Arrival Time: 2:00 p.m. ET
Press Conference Begins: 3:00 p.m. ET

Tuesday, June 25
Washington, DC
Location: The Howard Theatre
620 T Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
Fan Arrival Time: 12:00 p.m. ET
Press Conference Begins: 1:00 p.m. ET

Wednesday, June 26
Grand Rapids, MI
Location: Houseman Field
2055 Rosewood Avenue SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Fan Arrival Time: 11:00 a.m. ET
Press Conference Begins: 12:00 p.m. ET

Chicago, IL
Location: Chicago Theatre
175 North State Street
Chicago, IL 60601
Fan Arrival Time: 5:00 p.m. CT
Press Conference Begins: 6:00 p.m. CT

Thursday, June 27
Atlanta, GA
Location: Atlantic Station
1380 Atlantic Drive (Central Park between Rosa Mexicano and Strip)
Atlanta, GA 30363
Fan Arrival Time: 12:00 p.m. ET
Press Conference Begins: 1:00 p.m. ET

Friday, June 28
Miami, FL
Location: Bayfront Park
100 Chopin Plaza (In front of InterContinental Miami hotel)
Miami, FL 33131
Fan Arrival Time: 12:00 p.m. ET
Press Conference Begins: 1:00 p.m. ET

Sunday, June 30
Mexico City, Mexico
Location information to be announced separately.

Monday, July 1
Houston, TX
Location: Union Station at Minute Maid Stadium (Main entrance of stadium)
501 Crawford Street
Houston, TX 77002
Fan Arrival Time: 12:00 p.m. CT
Press Conference Begins: 1:00 p.m. CT

San Antonio, TX
Location: The Alamo
300 Alamo Plaza
San Antonio, TX 78205
Fan Arrival Time: 5:00 p.m. CT
Press Conference Begins: 6:00 p.m. CT

Tuesday, July 2
Phoenix, AZ
Location: Herberger Theater
222 East Monroe Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Fan Arrival Time: 11:00 a.m. MT
Press Conference Begins: 12:00 a.m. MT

Los Angeles
Location: Nokia Plaza L.A. LIVE
777 Chick Hearn Court
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Fan Arrival Time: 6:30 p.m. PT
Press Conference Begins: 7:30 p.m. PT

Mayweather vs. Canelo, a 12-round fight for Mayweather’s WBA Super Welterweight Super World Championship and Canelo’s WBA, WBC and The Ring Magazine Super Welterweight World Championships taking place Saturday, September 14 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, is promoted by Mayweather Promotions, Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo Promotions and is sponsored by Corona and O’Reilly Auto Parts, Valvoline. The mega-event will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. The event will be available in Spanish on secondary audio programming (SAP).

Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s brilliant career and shrewd mastery of the risk-to-reward ratio are no coincidence. Mayweather has put himself into history’s pound-for-pound debate and at the top of a pay scale dominated by playmakers, quarterbacks and pitchers because he knows who to fight. And when.

Canelo Alvarez on September 14 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand is mostly a money move, motivated by disappointing pay-per-view numbers for his one-sided decision over Robert Guerrero on May 4. Reports from various media put the PPV buy rate at 875,000, despite a Showtime prediction that it would exceed one million.

If accurate, that means Showtime sustained a $12 million loss, according to Forbes. Mayweather got his $32.5 million, but probably not much more than that for his first Showtime fight in a contract worth a possible $250 million.

After just one fight in a 30-month deal for as many as six bouts, Showtime and Mayweather are partners, joined at the wallet. Showtime, a CBS subsidiary, wants to recoup losses, probably as fast as possible. And Mayweather, closer to retirement than his prime, wants to max out his income potential.

Canelo serves both masters, especially on a date that coincides with Mexico’s celebration of its independence. Canelo might not be Mexico’s best fighter. That honor still belongs to Juan Manuel Marquez. But the 38,000 fans Canelo drew to San Antonio’s Alamodome in April for his victory over Austin Trout make him the biggest draw among Mexican and Mexican-American fans, the demographic that sustains the boxing business. Canelo sells.

But September 14, announced by Mayweather on Twitter Wednesday night, isn’t only about money. If dollars were the sole motivation, we already would have seen Mayweather-versus-Manny Pacquiao. We haven’t, for reasons repeated into mind-numbing redundancy. No reason to repeat them here. Fifty-million dollars were said to be the potential payday for each during those futile talks. Fifty-million is said to be Mayweather’s potential for Canelo, whose share has yet to be reported.

Why Canelo and not Pacquiao? In calculating risk-to-reward, the guess is that Mayweather has detected flaws that make Canelo easier to beat now than Pacquiao was a couple of years ago.

Much has been made of Canelo’s maturing skillset in his unanimous decision over the left-handed Trout. However, the scorecards – 118-109, 116-111 and 115-112 – might have papered over Canelo’s weaknesses with too wide a margin.

Yes, he displayed newfound head movement. Yet, he often lunged awkwardly in attempting to land against the quick Trout, who is slick, yet possesses none of Mayweather’s calculated precision. Lunge against Mayweather, and Canelo is bound to feel the right hand that landed at will against Guerrero.

Then, there’s the foot speed. Canelo often appears flat-footed, which is what Mayweather said of Guerrero before a bout that is beginning to look like a tune-up. Mayweather has none of the foot speed he had a decade ago, but he still has a lot more than anything displayed by Canelo.

Also, there are signs of fatigue. Against Trout, Canelo appeared to tire late in the sixth round and throughout the seventh. The 36-year-old Mayweather is still able to conserve energy with carefully-orchestrated tactics. That could prove problematic for Canelo, especially late in a 12 round bout.

A lot has been made about a catch-weight, 152 pounds. It might only be cosmetic. But if there’s an effect, it’s only to Canelo, a junior-middleweight (154) who will have to work a little harder to make the mandatory for Mayweather, a natural welterweight.

At opening bell, there’s talk that Canelo could be 170, or 15 to 20 pounds heavier than Mayweather. Maybe, although Mayweather looked to be at least 160 in September 2009 when he easily beat Marquez, who collected an additional $600,000 when Mayweather was two pounds heavier than the contract’s catch-weight, 144. We’ll never know how heavy Mayweather was that night. He refused to step on the scale for HBO not long before entering the ring. But it’s safe to assume Mayweather will be heavy enough on the night of September 14.

The risk appears to be Canelo’s power. The heavy-handed red-head is dangerous, especially with effective combinations. A danger-sign for Mayweather was in the facial bruises suffered when he beat Miguel Cotto in May, 2012 at 154 pounds.

A key might be Canelo’s age. He’ll turn 23 on July 18. Youth, perhaps, will lead him into harm’s way with awkward lunges into Mayweather’s right hand with bursts of energy that will leave him fatigued. But the victory over Trout included evidence that Canelo is on a learning path toward his prime. How fast? Hard to say. But a maturing Canelo means a more dangerous one. Mayweather’s decision might be as simple as the calendar: Fight Canelo now before he gets better and Mayweather only gets older.

A loss to Mayweather in September would hurt, but hardly devastate the young Mexican. A loss is a good lesson and even a yardstick for true greatness in boxing, which more than any sport is about overcoming adversity attached to defeat. Would Muhammad Ali be the legend he is today if he had not come back from a loss to Joe Frazier? Defeat appears to be a chapter Mayweather plans to avoid.

Then again, there’s always the possibility of a rematch, or another opportunity for him, Canelo and Showtime to ride the revenue steam. But that’s another story for another day, perhaps waiting to be told on September 14.

Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s brilliant career and shrewd mastery of the risk-to-reward ratio are no coincidence. Mayweather has put himself into history’s pound-for-pound debate and at the top of a pay scale dominated by playmakers, quarterbacks and pitchers because he knows who to fight. And when.

Canelo Alvarez on September 14 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand is mostly a money move, motivated by disappointing pay-per-view numbers for his one-sided decision over Robert Guerrero on May 4. Reports from various media put the PPV buy rate at 875,000, despite a Showtime prediction that it would exceed one million.

If accurate, that means Showtime sustained a $12 million loss, according to Forbes. Mayweather got his $32.5 million, but probably not much more than that for his first Showtime fight in a contract worth a possible $250 million.

After just one fight in a 30-month deal for as many as six bouts, Showtime and Mayweather are partners, joined at the wallet. Showtime, a CBS subsidiary, wants to recoup losses, probably as fast as possible. And Mayweather, closer to retirement than his prime, wants to max out his income potential.

Canelo serves both masters, especially on a date that coincides with Mexico’s celebration of its independence. Canelo might not be Mexico’s best fighter. That honor still belongs to Juan Manuel Marquez. But the 38,000 fans Canelo drew to San Antonio’s Alamodome in April for his victory over Austin Trout make him the biggest draw among Mexican and Mexican-American fans, the demographic that sustains the boxing business. Canelo sells.

But September 14, announced by Mayweather on Twitter Wednesday night, isn’t only about money. If dollars were the sole motivation, we already would have seen Mayweather-versus-Manny Pacquiao. We haven’t, for reasons repeated into mind-numbing redundancy. No reason to repeat them here. Fifty-million dollars were said to be the potential payday for each during those futile talks. Fifty-million is said to be Mayweather’s potential for Canelo, whose share has yet to be reported.

Why Canelo and not Pacquiao? In calculating risk-to-reward, the guess is that Mayweather has detected flaws that make Canelo easier to beat now than Pacquiao was a couple of years ago.

Much has been made of Canelo’s maturing skillset in his unanimous decision over the left-handed Trout. However, the scorecards – 118-109, 116-111 and 115-112 – might have papered over Canelo’s weaknesses with too wide a margin.

Yes, he displayed newfound head movement. Yet, he often lunged awkwardly in attempting to land against the quick Trout, who is slick, yet possesses none of Mayweather’s calculated precision. Lunge against Mayweather, and Canelo is bound to feel the right hand that landed at will against Guerrero.

Then, there’s the foot speed. Canelo often appears flat-footed, which is what Mayweather said of Guerrero before a bout that is beginning to look like a tune-up. Mayweather has none of the foot speed he had a decade ago, but he still has a lot more than anything displayed by Canelo.

Also, there are signs of fatigue. Against Trout, Canelo appeared to tire late in the sixth round and throughout the seventh. The 36-year-old Mayweather is still able to conserve energy with carefully-orchestrated tactics. That could prove problematic for Canelo, especially late in a 12 round bout.

A lot has been made about a catch-weight, 152 pounds. It might only be cosmetic. But if there’s an effect, it’s only to Canelo, a junior-middleweight (154) who will have to work a little harder to make the mandatory for Mayweather, a natural welterweight.

At opening bell, there’s talk that Canelo could be 170, or 15 to 20 pounds heavier than Mayweather. Maybe, although Mayweather looked to be at least 160 in September 2009 when he easily beat Marquez, who collected an additional $600,000 when Mayweather was two pounds heavier than the contract’s catch-weight, 144. We’ll never know how heavy Mayweather was that night. He refused to step on the scale for HBO not long before entering the ring. But it’s safe to assume Mayweather will be heavy enough on the night of September 14.

The risk appears to be Canelo’s power. The heavy-handed red-head is dangerous, especially with effective combinations. A danger-sign for Mayweather was in the facial bruises suffered when he beat Miguel Cotto in May, 2012 at 154 pounds.

A key might be Canelo’s age. He’ll turn 23 on July 18. Youth, perhaps, will lead him into harm’s way with awkward lunges into Mayweather’s right hand with bursts of energy that will leave him fatigued. But the victory over Trout included evidence that Canelo is on a learning path toward his prime. How fast? Hard to say. But a maturing Canelo means a more dangerous one. Mayweather’s decision might be as simple as the calendar: Fight Canelo now before he gets better and Mayweather only gets older.

A loss to Mayweather in September would hurt, but hardly devastate the young Mexican. A loss is a good lesson and even a yardstick for true greatness in boxing, which more than any sport is about overcoming adversity attached to defeat. Would Muhammad Ali be the legend he is today if he had not come back from a loss to Joe Frazier? Defeat appears to be a chapter Mayweather plans to avoid.

Then again, there’s always the possibility of a rematch, or another opportunity for him, Canelo and Showtime to ride the revenue steam. But that’s another story for another day, perhaps waiting to be told on September 14.

Bradley
According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez will now fight on October 12 and stead of September 14th due to the announcement of the showdown between Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez.

“What happened was Mayweather reserved Sept. 14 with the (pay-per-view) industry and we always said that we will respect that reservation and that if he went against anybody we would move,” said Top Rank’s Bob Arum. “We had a second hold on that date. Now, once he elected to go on that date then we shifted to Oct. 12. That is why we had Thomas & Mack on hold for both dates. This is something we completely anticipated.”

“I didn’t care and I talked to Tim (on Wednesday night) and he was like, ‘That’s fine. Hey, (Mayweather-Alvarez is) great for boxing, right?’ I said, ‘Yeah, it’s a huge fight. You don’t really care about moving do you?’ He said no,” said Cameron Dunkin, Bradley’s manager. “Whether Timmy and Marquez are fighting in September or October doesn’t matter to me and Tim doesn’t care either. We both said the same thing — that (Mayweather-Alvarez) is great for boxing and who cares if we have to move a month.”

“He said he’ll start doing some light workouts in early June,” Dunkin said. “Nothing crazy. He just wants to keep his weight down and do some running. But he’s got to be careful not to overtrain because he loves to fight and he gets excited about a fight and wants to train like 10 or 12 weeks when he should be doing about eight weeks.”

It was also found out that Welterweights Jesse Vargas and Mikael Zewski will appear on the undercard in seperate bouts.

“Vargas will be on the pay-per-view if he fights somebody,” Arum said. “We’re not doing appearance fights on the pay-per-view. If he fights somebody real he will be on the pay-per-view, like (newly signed Top Rank fighter Luis Carlos) Abregu. That’s a good fight. You don’t want us to put on junk on the pay-per-view. Zewski, same thing. He is fine to be on the pay-per-view but is he ready for prime time and will he fight somebody?”

Arum said another fighter who could be on the pay-per-view telecast is light heavyweight brawler Seanie Monaghan (18-0, 11 KOs), a New Yorker who is a popular ticket seller in New York.

“We’re talking about having him on,” Arum said. “We want to put on somebody that the New York papers will write about. He’s a pretty good draw and he makes great fights, so that’s somebody we are considering.”

According to his official Twitter account, Pound for Pound King Floyd Mayweather will take on WBC/WBA Super Welterweight champion Saul Alvarez on September 14th in Las Vegas.

The official statement read: “I chose my opponent for September 14th and it’s Canelo Alvarez. I’m giving the fans what they want. It will be at the MGM Grand”

The rumor is the bout will be contested at 152 lbs.

Canelo Alvarez emerges as the biggest winner from Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s predictable and perhaps necessary victory over Robert Guerrero. Argue you all you want about the merits of Mayweather’s dominance. Get over it. Doesn’t matter. Besides, what did anyone really expect?

If dollars are the most reliable path in boxing or any other business, it was no surprise. Follow the purses. According to contracts filed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Mayweather’s guarantee was $32.5 million. Guerrero’s was $3 million.
Mayweather’s compensation was 10.83 times more than Guerrero’s paycheck. That’s a long way from the widening gap that separates CEO from employee in today’s America. According to various sources, that number is bigger by 350 to 354 times, or more canyon than gap.

No matter how it’s calculated, here’s the bottom line: Guerrero did what he was hired to do. He was virtually Mayweather’s employee. He might as well have come into the ring on May 4 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand wearing one of those caps that say TMT, the Mayweather logo that stands for The Money Team.

Guerrero clocked in at opening bell and clocked out after 12 rounds of work. He allowed Mayweather to shake off some rust and re-establish a working relationship with his dad, Floyd Sr., who is back as his trainer. Above all, Guerrero was a vehicle for Mayweather to test his readiness for a Showtime contract worth $250 million if he fights five more times over the next 30 months. So far, so good.

But the tune-up Mayweather needed left a potential problem. Guerrero is everything that Alvarez is not. Alvarez continues to emerge as a Mayweather equal at the box office with proven drawing power absent on May 4. As of Thursday, pay-per-view numbers had yet to be released. If – as rumored – they fall short of expectations, Alvarez’ importance to Showtime’s deal with Mayweather grows.

Even if the numbers are better than speculated, Alvarez-Mayweather is the fight Showtime must have if the deal is to succeed. Alvarez, of Guadalajara, is the red-head Pied Piper for Mexican fans. He brings the Mexican audience. No demographic is more important in boxing. Mayweather seemed to forget that on May 4 when he tried to appropriate the popular Cinco de Mayo holiday for himself. On fight posters, the celebratory weekend was called May Day.

In 2007, Mayweather wore a sombrero and Mexican colors into the ring before a split-decision on May 5 over Oscar de la Hoya. That might have been a little over the top, but it worked because it acknowledged an audience that has helped him make all that Money. His tip of the sombrero was noticed then. Six years later, I can’t help but think there’s annoyance at suddenly seeing his signature on the same weekend that is Mexican history.

In a savvy move, Alvarez displayed business smarts usually associated with Mayweather when he decided not to fight on the May 4 card, because he couldn’t be guaranteed a Mayweather fight on September 14. Instead, he moved into the main event in a victory on April 20 over Austin Trout in San Antonio. A crowd of nearly 40,000 showed up at the Alamodome. Ticket prices were cheaper than they were in Vegas for Mayweather-Guerrero. But would 40,000 have shown up for Mayweather-Guerrero in San Antonio?

It’s impossible to say what the pay-per-view audience would have been on May 4 if Alvarez had been on the card. But it’s fair to assume they would have been better than whatever the official tally winds up being. Talks for Alvarez-Mayweather reportedly are already underway. At this point, the proposed financial split is anybody’s guess. But here’s a good one: Alvarez won’t fight for $3 million. Multiply Guerrero’s guarantee five times, add a substantial percentage of the Mexican television revenue to Alvarez’ purse and you might get a deal.

We say might, because it’s hard to know how Mayweather will react. He has a history of dictating terms, a factor in the abortive talks for a fight with Manny Pacquiao. If Home Box Office had signed a Showtime-like deal with Mayweather, HBO might still be counting its losses. An HBO deal with Mayweather would have needed Pacquiao then as much as Showtime needs Alvarez now.

Time could be pushing Mayweather to an Alvarez fight sooner than anyone might have expected. At 36, Mayweather is probably a step or two beyond his prime. He said after beating Guerrero that he is five fights from retirement. His best chance might be now instead of later against the 22-year-old Alvarez, who is still approaching his prime.
Meanwhile, the ambitious Alvarez might pay for some youthful impatience. He continues to lobby for Mayweather. Alvarez fights at 154 pounds. Mayweather, comfortable at welterweight, could demand a fight at 147, forcing him into a diet and regimen that could weaken him. There are warnings that Alvarez is getting ahead of himself. Friends and associates are telling him to fight Miguel Cotto first. They are asking him to wait.

But time, money, Mexican fans, Canelo’s ambitions and his emerging role as a make-or-break component in Showtime’s deal with Mayweather are creating momentum hard to stop.

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, talks are underway for a possible Fall showdown between world champions Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez

“I am working on the fight,” said Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer. “I’m crunching the numbers. You should see my calculator — it’s red-hot. I am working on a lot of fights, but this is my No. 1 priority.”

“This is something I am pursuing and I am having conversations with both sides,” Schaefer said. “Canelo wants the fight and Floyd has never turned down an opponent.”

“We’re going to be back in September,” Mayweather said.

SAN ANTONIO – Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is a better fighter than he appears on television, which is an ironical development given how desperately two television broadcasters, one in the U.S., one in Mexico, now crave his success. He is also better with fans and interviewers, more comfortable, more himself, if no better looking, than many stoic Mexican champions are. These are fine, important things, since Saturday at Alamodome ensured he is our sport’s future, being, as he is, the best young representative from boxing’s most reliable fanbase.

One didn’t need to be a Canelo partisan to see him win a close, clear victory over New Mexico’s Austin Trout in their junior middleweight title-unification match, Saturday, a victory judges unanimously saw Alvarez’s way: 115-112, 116-111 and 118-109. My scorecard concurred, 115-114, marking rounds 5, 6, 8, 10 and 12 for Trout, rounds 1 and 4 even, and rounds 2, 3, 7, 9 and 11 for Alvarez – with round 7 going 10-8 in his favor. Additionally, I marked with an asterisk rounds 2, 3, 5, 11 and 12, as those close enough to engender goodfaith debate.

All calculus aside, my sense of the fight at ringside was that Alvarez was its winner, the man who most successfully manifested what the verb “to fight” both connotes and denotes. What is not adequately transmitted about Alvarez by television – why, once more, attending fights bests watching them through self-interested and -deluding filters – is the ferocity of his attack. He has none of the workaday commitment his countrymen typically apply to their punches, blows that hurt for being efficiently leveraged by professional fighters whose bodyweights are properly balanced over feet that are flat.

Alvarez punches to hurt his opponent in a personal way; he wants every blow to tell with a wince or whimper or welt from or on its recipient – and Alvarez flies his body at another’s in a flash of violence quickly as he returns it to a more observant mien. He sells-out with his right hand; from the opening of Saturday’s fight, long before he had Trout’s measure or any expectation he’d not be countered and then imperiled by Trout’s counter, Alvarez threw righthands recklessly, whether as straight crosses or looping hybrid hooks, while Trout threw a fleeing jab, one meant as a tasting, sampling thing, something from which he could hurriedly extract himself when it did not land – and it did not land, not fractionally often as anyone, especially Trout, thought it would.

If Alvarez’s ferocity was the evening’s best surprise, his elusiveness was runner-up. It was striking how few of Trout’s strikes got closer than near him. In the kaleidoscope of lights and colors and angles and commentary that is a televised prizefight, much of what appears a clean punch verily is not. From my ringside notes, about a round scored for Trout: “Round 5: Trout is being outclassed by Canelo. In that round Canelo didn’t land enough to win, but Trout didn’t land hardly anything either. Trout cannot seem to find Canelo.”

Thursday night Austin Trout visited San Fernando Gymnasium, downtown, for a light workout. He was very good at what he did but not great. He did mitts work at a pedestrian rate, not hitting particularly hard, not committing particularly full, not catching the center of the mitt with more than two-thirds his punches. Were he a baseball pitcher, Trout would barely miss corners, get behind in counts, and then serve a juicy fastball over the plate.

He was gracious, of course, gracious as the reputation that preceded him: After 40 minutes of shadowboxing, mitts and skipping rope, his handlers had the San Fernando faithful – mostly local boxers and their families (the workout was not public or announced) – line up at the base of the steps, make their ways to the ring, and have their pictures taken with the champ. Trout had a smile or hug or softly said pleasantry for each, even if not one bore a resemblance to him, even if every one planned to cheer Alvarez’s passionate pursuit of his unconsciousness in 48 hours.

Trout is not special as Alvarez, and that would be so even if Trout had somehow finagled a decision Saturday. When I glanced at the tally of my scorecard, I was glad to see Alvarez was the victor, because that is how the fight felt from ringside. Alvarez made the consequential choices in the fight, whether the choices that preceded his hurled righthands, or the choice to retreat to the ropes and audition for a Mayweather fight unlikely to materialize.

Or perhaps it was not an audition at all but evidence of his fatigue; it is a sapping strategy Alvarez applied Saturday, harder than pressure fighting, for its backward steps, harder than defensive boxing, for the contractions that happen an instant before throwing righthands and the exertion of stopping them when they miss. Alvarez relaxes much as possible for his style of combat, one wishing to inflict pain with every blow, he throws three punches – jab, cross and right uppercut – more efficiently than his peers, but still he gets visibly fatigued at regular intervals of a 36-minute fight, giving an opponent at least six of them through inactivity.

I have now borne eyewitness to Canelo Mania, yes, but I still do not understand it; Alvarez feels more like a 20,000-seat prizefighter than the nearly 40,000 he filled at Alamodome. He is a more suspenseful fighter in person than he appears on television, though, and more than a novel complexion, much more, which assuages a fear serious people had about him. If he is our sport’s future, he is not a bad future to have.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

SAN ANTONIO – Saul “Canelo” Alvarez was supposed to be a heavy-footed stalker who would either grind Austin “No Doubt” Trout in the canvas with a left hook, or never close space enough to make a challenge. That was what aficionados said before the fight. That was what Trout prepared for in training camp.

How wrong they were – all of us.

Saturday at Alamodome, before a partisan-Mexican crowd of nearly 40,000, Mexico’s Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KOs) decisioned New Mexico’s Trout (26-1, 14 KOs) by unanimous scores of 115-112, 116-111 and 118-109 to become the unified junior middleweight champion of the world. The 15rounds.com ringside scorecard concurred with the official decision, though by a narrower margin: 115-114.

“Austin was a very difficult fighter, but I was smart,” Alvarez said afterward. “And as the fight went on, I figured out how to fight him.”

There was a ferocity to Alvarez’s punches, particularly the commitment with which he threw his right hand, that was too much for Trout’s counters. From the opening round onwards, Trout was unable to catch Alvarez with nearly as many or as much as he needed to.

“I connected with my right and my jab,” Alvarez said. “My jab was perfect.”

Alvarez, the heavy-handed Mexican, was actually more elusive than Trout, the slippery American.

“He shocked us tonight,” Trout conceded. “I was prepared for a totally different fighter.”

The quiet-spoken Trout, who made the fight close as it was with his persistence more than any other trait, appeared to have taken Alvarez more lightly than he should have. Trout’s prefight preparation assumed that so long as he did not needlessly engage Alvarez inside, he’d be able to catch the heavyfooted Mexican on the way in. That was not the case at all, as Alvarez often outjabbed Trout, and the jabs Alvarez landed were very much more than the flicking, swatting, sampling efforts Trout employed for most of the match.

“He boxed a lot better than I thought,” Trout said. “He moved a lot better than I thought.”

The fight’s opening five rounds featured nothing decisive and lots of close scoring. Alvarez’s punches, consistently, were the harder blows, but he was not nearly active as Trout, who often threw at triple Alvarez’s rate.

The sixth round marked what may have been Alvarez’s only tactical error, as he made the first of a number of choices to be elusive rather than aggressive, allowing Trout finally to measure him and land more successfully than he had to that point. Round 6, subsequently, was the first round Trout won cleanly.

“I learned a lot from this fight,” Alvarez said. “It was a great experience for me.”

The seventh round changed everything and ultimately supplied the Alvarez point that decided the match for the Mexican on the 15rounds.com scorecard. Showing a willingness to sell-out with the right hand in his 1-2 combination, Alvarez stepped forward and blasted Trout with a straight right that dropped him in the opening minute of round 7. That 10-8 round made the scoring difference.

Alvarez then rested as much as he fought in the rounds that followed, showing himself a fighter capable of 30 minutes of constant pressure in a 36-minute fight. He protected his lead properly, though, winning on all three cards.

“I take my loss like a man,” Trout said. “The better man won tonight.”

Asked afterwards if he wished to fight Floyd Mayweather, Alvarez was unequivocal.

“Obviously,” he said. “Of course I want Mayweather next.”

He will need to prepare himself for 36 fully concentrated minutes, if that fight ever comes to fruition.

OMAR FIGUEROA VS. ABNER COTTO
The co-main event was not the ticket-seller, and it’s a good thing too.

Local Texas favorite Omar Figueroa (21-0-1, 17 KOs), a lightweight titlist from Weslaco, a bordertown just east of McAllen, made startlingly quick work of outmatched Puerto Rican Abner Cotto (16-1, 7 KOs) in Saturday’s co-main event, stopping Cotto at 2:57 of round 1, with a lefthand to the body that dropped Cotto for the second time in as many minutes and caused him to remain on his knees.

“I could tell my body shots hurt him,” said Figueroa immediately afterward. “I was just waiting for my next opportunity.”

At Friday’s weighin, co-main event co-promoter Miguel Cotto arrived in a casual black getup and remained seated at the back of the stage, acknowledging almost no one. If he had an inkling how to sell his nascent promotional company to the public of South Texas, he didn’t show it. Saturday his namesake displayed the same capacity for prizefighting.

JERMALL CHARLO VS. ORLANDO LORA
Prognostications for Saturday’s penultimate match went: Houston super welterweight Jermall Charlo, who has class but not much pop, will outclass fully Mexican Orlando Lora, who is tough and applies pressure. Prognostications were ultimately wrong – Charlo stopped Lora fairly early – though whether because of Charlo’s improved power or Lora’s increased fragility remains unknown.

Charlo outboxed Lora for every minute of their match, but Lora seemed willing and able to absorb the abuse, at least, which brought sighs of displeasure and surprise from the filled-in Alamodome crowd, when Lora quit on his stool after round 4, awarding Charlo a victory that will go in the books: KO-5.

Charlo continues to build momentum in his career, boxing under Houston trainer Ronnie Shields and improving his physique in each match by applying an innovative and scientific approach to conditioning.

TERRELL GAUSHA VS. WILLIAM WATERS
U.S. Olympians are not supposed to suffer first-round knockdowns to novices with losing records, but that’s exactly what Cleveland super middleweight Terrell Gausha did in the first round of Saturday’s sixth match, catching an overhand right flush on the chin and dropping like he was shot.

Gausha (4-0, 2 KOs) was fortunate, the back of his head caught the ropes on the way down, and he did not suffer the doubly concussive effect of having his brain bounced on the canvas. Still, he was dazed. Gausha rose, collected himself and boxed to a narrow four-round unanimous-decision victory – 38-37, three times – over Alabaman William “The Outlaw” Waters (2-4, 2 KOs), a decision the half-capacity Texas crowd booed loudly.

As many different styles as Gausha had to see en route to representing his country in the Olympics, it was remarkable how often Waters caught him with clean power punches.

RAUL MARTINEZ VS. OMAR GONZALEZ
If it was a surprise to see San Antonio’s two-time world title challenger Raul “Cobrita” Martinez in a four-rounder against an unknown opponent near the bottom of Saturday’s undercard, it was quite a bit more than a surprise to see Martinez bloodied, dropped and beaten by Omar “Bad Boy” Gonzales.

In a four-round match judges scored 39-36, 38-37 and 37-38 for Gonzales (6-8, 1 KO), both San Antonians fought well and hard, but Gonzales was just a little better in a number of exchanges with Martinez (29-3, 17 KOs), who appeared to struggle with balance issues from the opening minute. An accidental collision of heads in round 3 opened a significant cut near Martinez’s left eye, likely buzzing him.

That must be the reason, or at least it will be the explanation, for Martinez’s being dropped on the blue mat in round 4 by a well-placed left-cross counter from the southpaw “Bad Boy,” who then had Martinez nearly down again in the match’s closing seconds.

When the fair split decision in Gonzales’s favor was read, Gonzales celebrated euphorically, and Martinez looked dazedly about, still apparently unsure of his bearings.

UNDERCARD
Saturday’s third match saw Mexican super bantamweight Andres Gutierrez (26-0-1, 22 KOs) brutalize fellow Mexican, and now-worn novelty, Salvador Sanchez III (30-6-3, 18 KOs), stopping him at 1:25 of round 5. Sanchez should no longer be asked to compete against elite fighters, no matter how catchy his deceased uncle’s name.

In other action, Houston featherweight Miguel Flores (11-0, 6 KOs) decisioned Texan Guadalupe De Leon. Tijuana super flyweight Ivan Morales (21-0, 13 KOs) decisioned Chihuahua’s Raul Hidalgo (17-8, 13 KOs). And Philadelphia middleweight Julian Williams (12-0-1, 7 KOs) stopped overmatched Californian Dashon Johnson (14-11-3, 5 KOs) at 1:43 of round 3.

Opening bell rang on a sparsely populated Alamodome at 4:37 PM local time.

Follow all the action as Canelo Alvarez meets Austin Trout in a WBA/WBC Super Welterweight unification bou from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas

12 ROUNDS-WBA/WBC SUPER WELTERWEIGHT TITLE–Canelo Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO’s) vs Austin Trout (26-0, 14 KO’s)

Round 1 Trout pawing with the jab…Canelo gets in a counter right..Lead left hook..10-9 Canelo

Round 2 Trout lands 3 jabs..Good uppercut from Canelo…2 jabs..Right to body…right to head…Right 20-18 Canelo

Round 3 Trout lands a couple good..good 1-2..Canelo lands a 1-2..Straight right..Trout lands 2 jabs and a body shot..29-28 Canelo

Round 4 Trout pops Canelo’s head back with a jab…Canelo lands 2 jabs..Trout landing..Canelo lands a jab..Trout lands a jab..straight left…Canelo lands a uppercut.Trout getting in shots…Hard jab from Canelo..Jab from Trout…38-38

Round 5 Trout lands a good combination..Canelo lands a right to the body..right to the cheek..Trout lands a counter..left..Canelo lands a right..Trout lands a straight left to the body..48-47 Trout

Round 6 Canelo lands a overhand right..Jab..Trout lands a right to the body and a right hook..Lead left from Canelo..trading uppercuts..2 hard shots from Trout on the ropes..Good counter right from Canelo..good uppercut..58-56 Trout

Round 7 HUGE RIGHT AND DOWN GOES TROUT….Trout lands a left..Hard right from Canelo..Good left from Trout..Right to the body from canelo…Jab from Trout..Short left uppercut..Straight right from Canelo..Counter right from Trout…66-66

Round 8 Straight left from Trout..Jab..left..Canelo lands 2 straight right..76-75 Trout

Round 9 Canelo lands a right..2 good uppercuts..Straight left from Trout..Canelo lands a right to the body..Right…Uppercut from Trout..Straight right from Canelo..left from Trout..85-85

Round 10 Trout lands a left..Canelo lands an overhand right..body..Hard uppercut..straight right..Counter left from Trout…straight left…95-94 Canelo

Round 11Left to body from Trout..Canelo 1-2…right..Trout lands a jab..Straight right from Canelo..Right uppercut..left uppercut to the body..left uppercut to the body..Straight left and counter right from Trout…good exchange…105-103 Canelo

Round 12 Trout lands an uppercut..left uppercuts…Canelo lands an overhand right..right..Trout 2 lefts…Canelo lands a left to the body..Right to body.. straight left from Trout..114-113 Canelo

115-112; 116-111; 118-109…CANELO ALVAREZ

SAN ANTONIO – At the corner of San Saba and Commerce Streets, in the middle of whose closed intersection the weighin for “Canelo Vs. Trout” was held, an enormous screenprint of Saul Alvarez stood beneath a signpost on which flew a promotional banner for a local art museum’s exhibition, one called “Real / Surreal.” An appropriate touch, that, as it is exactly the question about Alvarado aficionados will have answered in Saturday’s main event.

Friday afternoon under a bright sun, in the confines of an otherwise unseasonably pleasant outdoor plaza in this city’s Market Square quadrant, at an event attended by the Mayor, his U.S. Congressman brother, and copromoters and formal rivals Oscar De La Hoya and Jesse James Leija, Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KOs) and American Austin “No Doubt” Trout (26-0, 14 KOs) made weight for their Saturday junior middleweight title-unification match.

Alvarez, his skin powder white with fire-brick freckles, made 153 1/2. Trout, much darker complected, his chest and shoulders tattooed in gray art and script, made 153 1/4. Both appeared in excellent fighting trim, with Trout the talller man.

Every ticket for Saturday’s contest has been sold for a week at least. Promoters announced a crowd of about 40,000 is expected at Alamodome. What has been dubbed “Canelo Mania” has Alamo City in its trance, as a barely proven 22-year-old Mexican with features so red, Irish really, he is called “Cinnamon,” has sold more tickets to a domestic boxing event than anyone since Manny Pacquiao at Cowboys Stadium in 2010, despite facing much lesser opposition.

That will change Saturday. In Austin Trout, Alvarez will find himself matched with an undefeated 27 year-old prizefigher every bit as good as he is, likely better. Trout decisioned Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto in December, and Alvarez has yet to accomplish anything that merits comparison with Cotto’s achievements. Alvarez, though, has a youthful vigor Cotto had beaten out of him by Mexican Antonio Margarito and the aforementioned Pacquiao years before he met Trout.

Alvarez is the ticket-selling favorite in this historic, once-Spanish, once-Mexican city. But Trout is accustomed to fighting before unfriendly crowds, having beaten Cotto in Madison Square Garden, Mexican David Lopez in Mexico, and Alvarez’s brother Rigoberto in La Familia Alvarez’s home state of Jalisco. Both men exhude graciousness and poise, though Alvarez’s poise is more easily understood and come-by given the adoration shown him wherever he goes. Trout is unlikely to be undone by Saturday’s large, partisan-Mexican crowd.

*

Doors will open at Alamodome at 4:00 PM local time. As a Fiesta carnival occupies Alamodome’s parking lot, no parking will be available at Alamodome for Saturday’s match. This city’s VIA Metropolitan Transit will run busses from five park-and-ride spots, and ticketholders are encouraged to visit the VIA website for more details.

15rounds.com will have full ringside coverage.

WBC, WBA & VACANT RING MAGAZINE SUPER WELTERWEIGHT TITLES – 12 ROUNDS

CANELO ALVAREZ – 153 ½ Pounds

AUSTIN TROUT – 153 ¼ Pounds

OMAR FIGUEROA – 134 ½ Pounds

ABNER COTTO – 133 ½ Pounds

SHOWTIME EXTREME:

JERMALL CHARLO – 154 ¼ Pounds

ORLANDO LORA – 154 ¼ Pounds

JULIAN WILLIAMS – 156 ¾ Pounds

DASHON JOHNSON – 156 ¾ Pounds

ABOUT “CANELO VS. TROUT”:

Canelo vs. Trout, a 12-round Super Welterweight World Championship Unification fight for Canelo’s WBC title, Trout’s WBA title and the vacant Ring Magazine title, is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, Canelo Promotions and Leija & Battah Promotions and sponsored by Corona and AT&T. The co-main event will be a 10-round fight between undefeated prospects Omar Figueroa Jr. of Weslaco, Texas and Abner Cotto of Caguas, Puerto Rico for the vacant WBC Silver Lightweight Championship which is presented in association with Miguel Cotto Promotions. The fights will air live on SHOWTIME at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT with Canelo vs. Trout being presented in association with Greg Cohen Promotions. SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® is available in Spanish on secondary audio programming (SAP). Preliminary fights will air on SHOWTIME EXTREME at 8 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).

SAN ANTONIO, April 19 – The 38,000 fans in the sold out Alamodome tomorrow night are in for non-stop action as the undercard for the WBC Super Welterweight World Champion Canelo Alvarez and WBA Super Welterweight Austin “No Doubt” Trout showdown is now complete. Unbeaten prospects Jermall Charlo and Julian Williams will be joined by 2012 U.S. Olympian Terrell Gausha in the SHOWTIME EXTREME bouts that will lead into the SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING telecast featuring undefeated lightweights Omar Figueroa Jr. and Abner Cotto followed by the highly anticipated Canelo vs. Trout 12-round Super Welterweight Title Unification bout.

In the SHOWTIME EXTREME headliner, Houston’s Charlo, twin brother of top contender Jermell, puts his perfect 12-0 (8 KO’s) record on the line when he battles veteran Mexican contender Orlando Lora (29-3-2, 19 KO’s) in a super welterweight bout scheduled for eight rounds.

Plus, an eight-round middleweight contest between Philadelphia phenom Williams (11-0-1, 6 KO’s) and Escondido, California’s Dashon Johnson (14-10-3, 5 KO’s) and in a four round middleweight swing bout, 2012 U.S. Olympian Gausha (3-0, 2 KO’s) of Cleveland meets up with Valley, Alabama’s William Waters (2-3, 2 KO’s).

In an eight-round flyweight contest, unbeaten Ivan Morales (20-0, 13 KO’s), the brother of legendary Erik Morales, will continue to make a name for himself when he faces Chihuahua, Mexico’s Raul Hidalgo (17-7, 13 KO’s).

The vacant WBC Silver Super Bantamweight title will be up for grabs as well when Queretaro, Mexico’s Andres Gutierrez (25-0-1, 21 KO’s) faces countryman Salvador “Sal II” Sanchez (30-5-3, 18 KO’s), the nephew of the late Salvador Sanchez.

Local San Antonio hero Raul Martinez (29-2, 17 KOs) continues his comeback in bantamweight action, as he takes on Omar Gonzales (5-8, 1 KO) in a four-round battle. In the four-round junior lightweight opener, unbeaten Houstonite Miguel Flores (10-0, 6 KO’s) meets Weslaco’s Guadalupe De Leon (8-13, 4 KO’s).

Canelo vs. Trout, a 12-round Super Welterweight World Championship Unification fight for Canelo’s WBC title, Trout’s WBA title and the vacant Ring Magazine title, is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, Canelo Promotions and Leija & Battah Promotions and sponsored by Corona and AT&T. The co-main event will be a 10-round fight between undefeated prospects Omar Figueroa Jr. of Weslaco, Texas and Abner Cotto of Caguas, Puerto Rico for the vacant WBC Silver Lightweight Championship which is presented in association with Miguel Cotto Promotions. The fights will air live on SHOWTIME at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT with Canelo vs. Trout being presented in association with Greg Cohen Promotions. SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® is available in Spanish on secondary audio programming (SAP). Preliminary fights will air on SHOWTIME EXTREME at 8 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).

LOS ANGELES, April 19 – With the April 20 super welterweight unification showdown between Canelo Alvarez and Austin “No Doubt” Trout rapidly approaching, FOX Deportes Classics will prepare fans for fight night on Friday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT with a series of three of the Mexican superstar’s most memorable fights.

In the main event, it’s a trip back to November of 2011 when Canelo defeated former World Champion Kermit Cintron in the famed Plaza del Toros in Mexico City. Also featured will be Canelos’ September 2011 defeat of fellow countryman Alfonso Gomez on Mexican Independence Day weekend as well as Canelo’s first defense of his title against England’s Ryan Rhodes from June 2011.

Back in Mexico to close out his 2011 campaign, Canelo made an emphatic statement to the boxing world that he was ready for even bigger fights when he blasted former World Champion Kermit Cintron of Puerto Rico in just five rounds on November 26, 2011. From there, it was clear that the sky is the limit for Canelo.

Earlier that year and already one of boxing’s biggest stars, the WBC Super Welterweight World Champion, Mexico’s Canelo successfully defended his WBC crown for the second time on September 17, 2011 with a sixth round technical knockout win over “The Contender” star Alfonso Gomez at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles.

Three months earlier, on June 18, 2011, Canelo returned to his home country of Mexico to thrill fans with a fast-paced battle against England’s Ryan Rhodes. Dropping the challenger in the fourth round, Canelo eventually secured his first successful title defense by finishing his courageous foe in the 12th round.

Now, he prepares for his toughest test to date when he takes on WBA Super Welterweight World Champion Austin “No Doubt” Trout on Saturday, April 20 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, which will be live on SHOWTIME at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT.

# # #

Canelo vs. Trout, a 12-round Super Welterweight World Championship Unification fight for Canelo’s WBC title, Trout’s WBA title and the vacant Ring Magazine title, is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, Canelo Promotions and Leija & Battah Promotions and sponsored by Corona and AT&T. The co-main event will be a 10-round fight between undefeated prospects Omar Figueroa Jr. of Weslaco, Texas and Abner Cotto of Caguas, Puerto Rico for the vacant WBC Silver Lightweight Championship which is presented in association with Miguel Cotto Promotions. The fights will air live on SHOWTIME at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT with Canelo vs. Trout being presented in association with Greg Cohen Promotions. SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® is available in Spanish on secondary audio programming (SAP). Preliminary fights will air on SHOWTIME EXTREME at 8 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).

Newly released tickets priced at $150, plus applicable taxes, fees and services charges, are limited to eight per person and on sale now only at the Alamodome box office.

For more information on Golden Boy Promotions, visit www.goldenboypromotions.comor www.FOXDeportes.com, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GoldenBoyBoxing or www.twitter.com/FOXDeportes visit us on Facebook at Golden Boy Facebook Page or www.facebook.com/FOXDeportes.

CANELO ALVAREZ, WBC Super Welterweight World Champion

“If I want to win this fight, I have to move fast. I have to watch out for Trout’s left. I’ve been studying his style and I can definitely adapt to it. It’s going to be tough, but I know I can beat him. I trust I have what it takes to beat him.

“On Saturday, after defeating Trout, I will raise my hand and my belt and will be thinking of my brother. That belt is his.

“I’m 100 percent ready for Trout. He’s a world-class boxer and an undefeated world champion.

“I’m thankful to the people of San Antonio. They give me great motivation and they have an amazing energy.

“I’m very grateful and happy to be here.

“I’m maintaining weight. I’m training hard. I’m ready.

“I’m visualizing the fight. I’m very focused and very determined. Saturday is going to be my night.

“I’d like to thank my fans for their support. I’m anxious to give them the show they want on Saturday.

“I’m excited to be part of all this. I feel motivated that Oscar De La Hoya is part of all this. It makes me happy to be part of his team.

“I’m the type of boxer that adapts well to other styles.

“When I step into the ring, the best of me comes out.

“I’m ready for Trout. I’m ready to not let my fans down. I’m ready to win.”

AUSTIN “NO DOUBT” TROUT, WBA Super Welterweight World Champion

“We just want to up the intensity from the Miguel Cotto fight. Even though they’re not the same fighter, they have similar styles. We want to up the intensity because Canelo is a bit more intense of a fighter than Miguel Cotto.

“He’s an all-around fighter and he doesn’t have many faults, but he’s not as strong in some areas as others and we’re going to exploit that. We’re preparing for the total package.

“Canelo’s a world champion so he has to have what it takes. They wouldn’t have given him the belt otherwise.

“I’m ecstatic to be the focal point of over 38,000 people. It’s wonderful. I really just can’t wait to be in that atmosphere.

“If Canelo’s not ready now, he’s never going to be. I’m excited to get in there and I’m glad he put his foot down to make this fight happen.

(On the public turnout at Wednesday’s workout) “It’s love. I appreciate all the love. They’re the reason that boxing is going to thrive for ages. It’s one of the oldest sports and it’s not dying anytime soon. This is evidence of it right here.

“Anything is possible. We’ve done things that people said couldn’t be done. I believe God does miracles everyday. I’m not saying it’s going to beat the man, but it can be done. Impossible is a mind state and I don’t have that type of mind state.

“My focus is to just be in shape. We know he’s going to bring it, so we want to make sure we can up the intensity when we need to.

“I don’t think it’s going to be difficult at all fighting in front of these fans. It’s the opponent that’s going to make it difficult. The crowd isn’t going to make it harder or easier. Canelo is going to make it harder. So the crowd is not going to stray me or bother me one bit.

“My hometown is really divided being that it’s a mostly Latin area, but we have a lot of support coming from Las Cruces. Mexican blood is thick and it’s hard to divide that. They’re the best fans to have. If I could have them adopt me as their own champion, I’d be ecstatic because they’re loyal and they fight for their guys. My whole goal is to just take that love and push it onto me.

“Canelo is a champion and he wants to please his fans. If his fans didn’t say that he needed to fight me to prove that he’s the true champion, then I don’t think he would have done it.

“My strategy is to win by any means possible. Whether it is brawling, boxing, moving, sticking there, staying there, whatever I need to do. We’re going to win.

“I want to be a legend in this game. I don’t want to be a one-hit wonder.

“I’ve been the underdog a lot. What they think doesn’t bother me. I think ‘underdog’ is a mind state. I’m here to win. I’m here to win decisively. What the odds say, what the people say, is not really going to affect what happens in the ring.

“I’ve prepared for it and the way I’m feeling right now in my heart and in my mind, that’s what is going to affect the fight.

“The formula is the same (as against Miguel Cotto), but we know they’re not the same fighter. Canelo is in his prime, he’s undefeated and he’s not battle worn. He’s still got a lot of pop and life left in him. Although the formula is the same, we have to up the intensity and we’re not treating him as the same fighter.

“I fought his style of fighter my whole life being from Las Cruces, New Mexico, and fighting around the area. I’m not sure if he’s fought my style, though and we’ll see the difference come Saturday.”

ABNER COTTO, WBC FECARBOX Lightweight Champion

“First, I want to thank the public of San Antonio for being here. Then, I want to thank Golden Boy Promotions for giving me this opportunity. I’m so proud that I’m fighting at the Alamodome in front of over 30,000 people. It’s a true honor.

“It’s truly an honor to fight on the same card as Canelo Alvarez and Austin Trout. They’re both great boxers. It’s not going to be easy for Canelo. Trout is a tough fighter. After all, he beat my cousin [future Hall of Famer Miguel Cotto]. To be honest, I don’t know who’s going to win. I’m not going to make a prediction.

“When I have to fight, I’m always ready to fight at my best.

“I’ll be representing my people from Puerto Rico on Saturday at the Alamodome and I won’t let them down.”

JERMELL CHARLO, Top Super Welterweight Prospect

“I’m so happy to come back to San Antonio. I really enjoy the boxing fans here. They’re so nice and excited about boxing in this city.

“I feel good. I’ve been training hard. I’m focused and I’m ready.

“This is my shot…my first real shot. This is my chance to show not only San Antonio, but also the boxing world, what I’m made of and what I can do.”

RAUL MARTINEZ, Top Bantamweight Prospect

“I’ll be in my prime in a couple years. I’m training very hard. This fight means a lot to me. It’s my chance to move forward.

“I’ve had tough times, but boxing is a tough sport.

“I don’t have a promoter right now, but I have a great trainer, Jesse James Leija. He’s truly an inspiration to me.

“It’s an honor to be here working out at The Alamo. I’ve been to workouts before, but none like this one. This is awesome. Being in front of my people is an amazing feeling.

“To me, if you go by what you believe and you put a lot of effort and pride into it, you will get something out of it.

“I look up to Jesse [James Leija]. He gives me energy and he motivates me. When we’re training, I want to show him what I have and what I’m made of. He makes me want to punch harder.”

OSCAR DE LA HOYA, President of Golden Boy Promotions

“This fight will truly show the world what Canelo is made of. This is the opportunity he has needed to prove himself.

“I can’t wait to be in that arena on Saturday night. With almost 40,000 people in the Alamodome, it’s going to be rocking.

“It’s just amazing the draw that Canelo is. At 22 years old, his following is unlike anything I have seen in a long time.

“This is going to be a tough, tough fight. Canelo has his work cut out for him. Trout showed what he is made of when he fought Cotto and he is going to have to bring that intensity and more on Saturday night.”

JESSE JAMES LEIJA, President of Leija Battah Promotions and Texas Boxing Legend

“We brought the big fight here and San Antonio responded.

“Not only was I proud to fight here every time I stepped into the ring to fight, I am proud as a promoter to bring big fights here now.

“This is such a tough fight. I can’t pick a winner.

“If the energy in the arena is anything like it was 20 years ago when Julio Cesar Chavez fought Pernell Whitaker, you will be able to feel the electricity through your body.”

# # #

Canelo vs. Trout, a 12-round Super Welterweight World Championship Unification fight for

Canelo’s WBC title, Trout’s WBA title and the vacant Ring Magazine title, is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, Canelo Promotions and Leija & Battah Promotions and sponsored by Corona and AT&T. The co-main event will be a 10-round fight between undefeated prospects Omar Figueroa Jr. of Weslaco, Texas and Abner Cotto of Caguas, Puerto Rico which is presented in association with Miguel Cotto Promotions and will be a WBC lightweight semi-final elimination bout for the vacant NABA Lightweight Championship and Cotto’s WBC FECARBOX Lightweight Championship. The fights will air live on SHOWTIME at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT with Canelo vs. Trout being presented in association with Greg Cohen Promotions. SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® is available in Spanish on secondary audio programming (SAP). Preliminary fights will air on SHOWTIME EXTREME at 8 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).

Newly released tickets priced at $150, plus applicable taxes, fees and services charges, are limited to eight per person and on sale now only at the Alamodome box office

LOS ANGELES, April 18 – With the Super Welterweight World Championship Unification fight between Canelo Alvarez and Austin Trout coming up this weekend on Saturday, April 20 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, followed by the Unified Super Lightweight World Championship between Danny Garcia and Zab Judah at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on Saturday, April 27 and the culmination of the back-to-back-to-back championship fight weekends, “MAY DAY: Floyd Mayweather vs. Robert Guerrero” on Saturday, May 4 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, predictions are swirling around on the internet, in newspapers and on television from boxing scribes and fans doing their best to make their calls on what will happen in the upcoming fights.

Yet perhaps the predictions that hold the most weight are those of the pugilists themselves set to fight in the coming weeks.

Below are fight predictions from WBC Super Welterweight World Champion Canelo Alvarez,Unified Super Lightweight World Champion Danny “Swift Garcia,Middleweight Contender Fernando Guerrero,Six-Time and Four Division World Champion Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero,Middleweight Rising Star J’Leon Love, Two Division World Champion Abner Mares,WBC Featherweight World Champion Daniel Ponce de Leon, WBO Middleweight World Champion Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin, former IBF Bantamweight World Champion Leo Santa CruzandWBA Super Welterweight World Champion Austin “No Doubt” Trout.

Canelo Alvarez vs. Austin Trout – Saturday, April 20 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, TX on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING®

“I am going with Austin Trout, but he has to go in there and box. He can’t let Canelo Alvarez warm up too early. If he drops hard punches, he’ll pull it off.”

– Danny Garcia

“Gotta go with Canelo Alvarez. He’s young and he’s a mentally and physically strong person. Also, the people (fans) make him better.”

– Fernando Guerrero

“Canelo Alvarez is very hungry to prove all the doubters wrong. Both fighters have tremendous heart and will give fans a night to remember. Canelo has developed nicely and I’m giving him the edge in this fight based on pure desire. His body attack will be the difference. Canelo wins by mid-fight knockout.”

– Robert Guerrero

“I think Austin Trout will win because he has a better skill set and he’s a better boxer.”

– J’Leon Love

“That’s going to be a really exciting fight being that Canelo Alvarez has never faced a champion in his prime. Austin Trout is a difficult fighter that just beat (Miguel) Cotto, but I think Canelo should win because he’s younger and has a statement to make to let the world know that he is the real thing as a younger and hungrier fighter.”

– Abner Mares

“I’m going with Canelo Alvarez because he’s more powerful. I think Canelo can win by knockout if Austin Trout is willing to exchange shots.”

– Daniel Ponce de Leon

“This is a good matchup for boxing. You can’t go wrong with either fighter. Its two top fighters at the top of their game. I’m in the gym with Canelo Alvarez, and Austin Trout is my friend, so it is hard to pick.”

– Peter Quillin

“I think Canelo Alvarez is going to win. He comes forward. It’s going to be hard for Austin Trout to take Canelo’s pressure and handle his strength. Trout will make it difficult for Canelo, but I think he will win.”

– Leo Santa Cruz

Danny Garcia vs. Zab Judah – Saturday, April 27 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING®

“This is a great fight. I don’t have a favorite. The best fighter will win.”

– Canelo

“Danny Garcia will win. Zab Judah had his time. I think its Garcia’s time now.”

– F. Guerrero

“Zab Judah will make the proper adjustments in this fight, which will tame the young lion Garcia. Danny’s youth and punching power will even out Zab’s experience. This fight ends in draw.”

– R. Guerrero

“I pick Danny Garcia because he is younger and stronger.”

– Love

“This is another interesting fight. I’m 100 percent sure that Danny Garcia is going to win. No doubt the power punch is there. I know that isn’t everything for everyone, but that’s everything for Garcia. Zab Judah is an older guy. He’s an older fighter. I think he’s coming in with everything he has, but that isn’t enough. Youth and power trump age. I pick Garcia by knockout.”

– Mares

“Danny Garcia has power in his fists and will win by knockout. He is young and full of energy.”

– Ponce de Leon

“I think that in the first rounds Zab Judah will be a problem for Danny Garcia, but he will get tired in the later rounds. Danny will take advantage of that and knock him out.”

– Santa Cruz

“Danny Garcia will win with his consistency and power.”

– Trout

Peter Quillin vs. Fernando Guerrero – Saturday, April 20 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING®

“I cannot give a prediction since I’ve never seen Fernando Guerrero fight. However, Peter Quillin is the champion and has the advantage.”

– Canelo

“Peter Quillin all the way. He has the street in him and the heart. That’s the making of a great fighter.”

– Garcia

“This is going to be a competitive fight. I’m going with Peter Quillin to win by knockout because I feel he has the better punching power and will catch Guerrero with a punch he doesn’t see coming.”

– R. Guerrero

“Peter Quillin is a bigger puncher, but it will be a hard fight. I think Quillin will pull it off though.”

– Love

“That is a really tough fight. I know a lot of people see it toward Peter Quillin, but I think he’s going to have a hard time. Guerrero takes everything and more and gives as much back. It’s going to be an even fight.”

– Mares

“I think Peter Quillin has the advantage and can win in any way. He’s the better boxer and is the champion.”

– Ponce de Leon

“I haven’t seen much of Fernando Guerrero, but what I have seen from Peter Quillin, he’s a really good, strong fighter. I think he’s going to win by decision, but I think he is going to take a few punches along the way.”

– Santa Cruz

“Peter Quillin showed his heart and determination to win the belt. I’m sure he will go above and beyond to keep it. I am picking Kid Chocolate.”

– Trout

Floyd Mayweather vs. Robert Guerrero – Saturday, May 4 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV®

“Robert Guerrero has a great opportunity to win. He’s hungry for glory and will try everything to get the victory. I am picking Guerrero.”

– Canelo

“Floyd Mayweather all the way. Robert Guerrero is a good fighter. He earned his shot, but Mayweather is the star.”

– Garcia

“You can never bet against Floyd Mayweather. He’s just overall one of the best fighters ever. Gotta go with Mayweather.”

– F. Guerrero

“Floyd Mayweather is too intelligent of a fighter.”

– Love

“Floyd Mayweather is such a talented fighter and he backs it up. He talks a lot, but he backs it up. I know Robert Guerrero is hungry and determined, but wanting to win doesn’t get you a win. It’s about what you can do inside the ring, and that’s why Mayweather will win.”

– Mares

“I think Robert Guerrero can win if he fights the same way he fought Andre Berto, pressing the action like Jose Luis Castillo did against Floyd Mayweather. However, Mayweather is a great fighter and so difficult because his style, but I think Guerrero will win.”

– Ponce de Leon

“I never count Floyd Mayweather out. He’s the best pound-for-pound fighter. He’s who every fighter looks up to. I call it the Floyd Mayweather era of boxing. Robert Guerrero wanted this for a long time. He’s a multi-division champion and he deserves it. They both have something to prove. I don’t know who to pick here.”

– Quillin

“That is going to be another hard fight. I think Floyd Mayweather has more experience and he’s smarter. He knows what he has to do to win. Guerrero is a good, smart fighter, but I think Mayweather is going to take it by decision.”

– Santa Cruz

“I’m picking Floyd Mayweather, but this fight is not as easy as everyone thinks it’ll be. Robert Guerrero is hungry and has the ability to make it a tough fight.”

– Trout

Daniel Ponce de Leon vs. Abner Mares – Saturday, May 4 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV®

“I’m taking Daniel Ponce de Leon. I don’t really see Abner Mares pulling it off at 126 pounds. That’s a tough fight.”

– Garcia

“Abner Mares just has the youth and the will. When guys are winning, they want to keep at it.”

– F. Guerrero

“Both Daniel Ponce de Leon and Abner Mares are great Mexican warriors. Mares is going to come forward with pressure and Ponce de Leon will counter. I’m picking Ponce de Leon to win by a close split decision.”

– R. Guerrero

“Abner Mares has much better skills.”

– Love

“A lot of people don’t give Abner Mares the credit he deserves. Daniel Ponce de Leon has a rough, rugged style. I see Mares putting on a great performance against a guy like Ponce de Leon who gives people trouble, and coming out with the win.”

– Quillin

“That is going to be another hard fight. They are both Mexican warriors. It can go either way, but if it goes to decision, Abner Mares will win. However, if Daniel Ponce de Leon catches him with a good punch, he will win by knockout.”

– Santa Cruz

“Abner Mares takes this one. His youth and toughness can outdo the super tough Daniel Ponce de Leon.”

– Trout

Leo Santa Cruz vs. Alexander Munoz – Saturday, May 4 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV®

“Leo Santa Cruz should win. He’s younger and full of talent.”

– Canelo

“Leo Santa Cruz is a tough guy and he is on a hot streak. I’m going with him.”

– Garcia

“Leo Santa Cruz is going to grind out a tough hard fought victory with pressure and a nice body attack. Santa Cruz wins by unanimous decision.”

– R. Guerrero

“Leo Santa Cruz is a much busier and better fighter.”

– Love

“That fight is hard to call. I think Santa Cruz is a strong up-and-comer. I think Alexander Munoz is an tough opponent for Santa Cruz to go up against, but he will go in there, look good and come out with a win.”

– Mares

“Leo Santa Cruz is the favorite to win because is young and powerful, and I think he will win.”

– Ponce de Leon

“I love watching Leo Santa Cruz. He’s a fan-friendly fighter and I think he will win.”

– Quillin

J’Leon Love vs. Gabriel Rosado – Saturday, May 4 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV

“Gabriel Rosado is a Philly guy, so I have to go for the hometown fighter.”

– Garcia

“J’Leon Love is the man. We’ve fought on the same card several times. I fought Gabriel Rosado. That is a pretty tight fight. He’s a tough opponent. That one is a question mark for me.”

– F. Guerrero

“J’Leon Love is a good prospect, but I think Gabriel Rosado is going to pull off the upset. Experience will be the key factor in a Rosado split decision.”

– R. Guerrero

“Flip a coin on that one.”

– Mares

“This is J’Leon Love’s biggest fight. He’s in camp with the pound-for-pound champion. He has a controversial win on his record. Gabriel Rosado is rough and rugged. He puts it all on the line. We’ll see. I don’t know who will win this one.”

– Quillin

“I have heard that J’Leon Love is a really good fighter. He should be able to take it. He has more to lose. I think he’s going to go out there and win by decision.”

– Santa Cruz

“This is a toss up. J’Leon Love is looking to prove himself. Gabriel Rosado is proven in my mind at 154, so we will see if weight is an issue.”

– Trout

# # #

About Canelo vs. Trout:

Canelo vs. Trout, a 12-round Super Welterweight World Championship Unification fight for Canelo’s WBC title, Trout’s WBA title and the vacant Ring Magazine title, is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, Canelo Promotions and Leija & Battah Promotions and sponsored by Corona and AT&T. The co-main event will be a 10-round fight between undefeated prospects Omar Figueroa Jr. of Weslaco, Texas and Abner Cotto of Caguas, Puerto Rico which is presented in association with Miguel Cotto Promotions and will be a WBC lightweight semi-final elimination bout for the vacant NABA Lightweight Championship and Cotto’s WBC FECARBOX Lightweight Championship. The fights will air live on SHOWTIME at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT with Canelo vs. Trout being presented in association with Greg Cohen Promotions. SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® is available in Spanish on secondary audio programming (SAP). Preliminary fights will air on SHOWTIME EXTREME at 8 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).

Newly released tickets priced at $100, plus applicable taxes, fees and services charges, are on sale now and only available for purchase at the Alamodome box office.

About Garcia vs. Judah:

Garcia vs. Judah, a 12-round bout for Garcia’s Unified Super Lightweight World Championship, is presented by Golden Boy Promotions and supported by Golden Boy Promotions sponsors Corona and AT&T. In the co-featured attraction, WBO Middleweight World Champion Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin puts his title on the line against hard-hitting Fernando Guerrero in a 12-round fight. The SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING telecast begins live at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast). SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is available in Spanish on secondary audio programming (SAP).

Remaining tickets priced at $200, $100, $50 and $25, plus applicable taxes, fees and services charges, are on sale at www.barclayscenter.com, www.ticketmaster.com, the American Express Box Office at Barclays Center, all Ticketmaster locations or by calling 800-745-3000. For group tickets, please call 800-GROUP-BK.

About “MAY DAY: Mayweather vs. Guerrero”:

“MAY DAY: Mayweather vs. Guerrero,” a 12-round fight for Mayweather’s WBC Welterweight World Championship and the vacant Ring Magazine Welterweight World Championship, is promoted by Mayweather Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions and sponsored by Corona, O’Reilly Auto Parts, AT&T, Star Trek Into Darkness and Valvoline. The mega-event will take place Saturday, May 4 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. The event can be heard in Spanish using secondary audio programming (SAP). Also featured will be WBC Featherweight World Champion Daniel Ponce de Leon taking on Two-Division World Champion Abner Mares in a 12-round fight for Ponce de Leon’s WBC Featherweight World Championship, former IBF Bantamweight World Champion Leo Santa Cruz facing veteran Alexander Munoz in a 10-round fight for the vacant USBA Junior Featherweight Championship and rising star J’Leon Love squaring off against recent world title challenger Gabriel Rosado in a 10-round middleweight battle for the vacant NABF Middleweight Championship.

Remaining tickets for “MAY DAY: Mayweather vs. Guerrero”
priced at $1,500, $1,250, $800 and $600, not including applicable service charges, are on sale now with a ticket limit of 10 per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets will also be available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com
or www.ticketmaster.com.

General admission tickets for the “MAY DAY: Mayweather vs. Guerrero” closed circuit telecasts at ARIA, Mandalay Bay, The Mirage, Monte Carlo and New York-New York, are priced at $50, not including handling fees, and are available for purchase at each individual property’s box office outlets and by phone with a major credit card at 866-799-7711. Ticket sales are limited to eight (8) per person. Tickets also are available through Ticketmaster by calling (800) 745-3000 or online at www.ticketmaster.com.

FORT WORTH, Texas – The hardest part about this thing we do is not, as novelist Philip Roth once put it, that everything must be written about, but that everything can be. Such a thought visited, Saturday, while sitting near a stage on which Natalie Merchant performed. I forwent a trip to New York City and a boxing-writers dinner and a prizefight, Guillermo Rigondeaux versus Nonito Donaire, that interested me, to see Merchant, tickets to whose concert I purchased months before Donaire fought Jorge Arce in Houston.

Nothing about the previous week’s trip to Ireland haunted me much as this concert did, because I pledged before boarding an Aer Lingus flight nothing about Ireland would find its way in this column. With the year’s largest consequential fight thus far, Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez versus New Mexican Austin “No Doubt” Trout, happening Saturday at Alamodome in San Antonio, though, connections had to be made because that is how columns work, and the connection between Merchant and Alvarez was, and is, grace.

Grace is not a word one freely associates with Mexican prizefighters, or prizefighters of any ethnicity, but in the swirl of impressions that happened Saturday in the Bass Performance Hall of this underestimated city’s Symphony Orchestra, “grace” was the very word that came to mind because of what happened at the press conference announcing Canelo vs. Trout one month ago at Alamodome, San Antonio’s signature edifice that will hold more than 30,000 people Saturday because Alvarez is that popular and Texas, frankly, is the one American state so interested in our sport.

After the usual things were said in the usual way by the usual people – one of the wonders of streaming video: today, no editor expects deadline coverage of such banality – there were side interviews ready to commence for television and television and television, and a local reporter or two, adjusting in no way the hands of what clock tells us what media matters. Before those loopy questions might be asked loopingly, to be televised in loops, though, Alvarez, dressed in a shiny battleship-gray suit and matching tie on synthetic black background, was brought to the stagefront’s extended tongue, to greet admirers for a moment or two of that spirited miming known as Connection with the Fans. But Alvarez began to sign anything handed him with any implement handed him, and while promoter Oscar De La Hoya shyly flapped a wing fans-ward, from a studiously selected perch 15 feet back of the scavengers, Alvarez signed and signed.

Thrice that I counted, Alvarez was asked to stop signing things and attend to the promotionally essential matter of television cameras. And thrice that I counted, he dismissed the request with hardly an acknowledgement – “You want me to be a ticket-seller in los estados unidos, ¿no?” – inconveniencing himself with not two syllables of explanation. Before he finished signing gloves and shirts and posters and programs and hats, numerous items for numerous folks, to tell television cameras he feels strong and is excited to be in, let’s see, San Antonio?, yes, San Antonio, he smilingly saluted the hoi polloi, hundreds strong, smaller and browner and towing a child or two, kept from him by a flat aluminum barricade, promising to sign their items, too, before he left.

What special effects Alvarez brings are natural, meaning authentic, and he appears to realize it: To date, his red hair and freckled complexion have distinguished him most from the large ranks of his countrymen’s prizefighters; Juan Manuel Marquez, for example, still could not sell 30,000 tickets in San Antonio three weeks before opening bell – and no, meritocracy has nothing to do with this, and yes, every ticket is sold: The Alamodome box office had nary an offering Friday morning. And meritocracy returns us to Saturday’s concert.

Natalie Merchant was the lead vocalist for 10,000 Maniacs before her 18th birthday, and possessed two platinum and four gold records before she turned 30, and has grown increasingly obscure since. She will turn 50 this year; her hair is timberwolf grey, not silver, her flat, once-almost-pretty features are overripe, and despite her confessed efforts she has acquired a pound of girth for every year since the 1992 MTV Unplugged performance that likely marked the last time anyone reading this saw or thought of her, if then. She was more effortful, Saturday, than her writing and singing imply; there were more clenched fists, more appeals for audience patience, and more autobiographical exposition than even her best song, “Tell Yourself” – one at whose singing she failed thrice, turning her back to the audience and sobbing, finally – anticipates.

Thirty minutes before, she found a very young boy in the audience, there with his mother and dressed in a dark suit not unlike Canelo’s, and gave him a signed copy of her book of collected children’s poetry, asking if this were his first concert, and when he said it was, Merchant offered:

“You will be proud to be able to say this was your first concert. In 25 years, a whole lot of people are going to be pretending Justin Bieber was not their first concert, and you won’t have to.”

It said much about how Merchant views her place in the canon of popular music, and it has some application to Canelo Alvarez for this obvious reason: He is the nearest thing prizefighting now has to Justin Bieber. His popularity dwarfs his achievement. His popularity dwarfs his potential for achievement, too; if we’re being honest, there is exactly no chance Alvarez will retire more accomplished than Juan Manuel Marquez, but he may outgross him many times over.

Today Saturday’s fight is not about Austin Trout at all, which is why this column has not been either. It says here, though, by the reading of the judges’ last scorecard this weekend, most accounts will treat Trout in the bitter way boxing’s habitués increasingly do everything: “Another robbery!” “Texas-sized Larceny!” “Someone Been Fishin’ in Trout’s Pond!”

I’ll take Alvarez, then, SD-12, in a fight honest hands score for Trout, 8-3-1.

Bart Barry can be reached at bart.barrys.email (at) gmail.com

Kelly Swanson

Thank you everybody for joining us today. You are on this call to talk to both the WBC Super Welterweight World Champion, Canelo Alvarez, and the WBA Super Welterweight World Champion, Austin Trout. We will start with Canelo Alvarez first and then Mr. Trout will join for the completion of the call.

We will also be sending out a Fight Week schedule and you will be receiving more information about the show, which takes place Saturday, April 20th. But to give you more details about what’s going on and what we’re talking about today I’d like to turn the call over to Oscar De La Hoya, President of Golden Boy Promotions. Oscar?

Oscar De La Hoya

Thank you very much, Kelly. Yes, we are a little over a week away and things are moving extremely well. Ticket sales have been unbelievably selling like hotcakes. We are well over 35,000 tickets.

We expect an incredible walk up, not only the day of the fight but all that week. As you know, when Julio Cesar Chavez fought Pernell Whitaker the walk up on that day alone was unbelievable. So we’re expecting a lot of people from across the border to come over and support their very own Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

This bout is a unification fight. It’s a 12-round fight for the WBC and WBA and also the vacant Ring Magazine Super Welterweight World Championship. We’re happy to announce the culminating event will be the up and coming fighter from Texas, Omar Figueroa Jr. vs. Abner Cotto, which will be a ten-rounder for the vacant WBC Silver Lightweight Title.

As you know, this event is taking place at the Alamodome promoted by Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo Promotions. And I also want to thank Leija & Battah Promotions, who have been doing an incredible, incredible job. I’m also happy to announce that Miguel Cotto also is helping us promote this event with Omar Figueroa and Abner Cotto.

This event is being sponsored by Corona and AT&T. Thank you very much. And as always, thank you very much to Showtime Championship Boxing. This event will be beginning at 10:00 p.m. Eastern/7:00 p.m. Pacific and the preliminary bouts will air on Showtime Extreme at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Tickets are still available. There are tickets priced at $25 and $10 and we’re also, because of the high demand, going to\ add some bleacher packs to the existing set up enabling us to open up seats which are priced at $150 and $100.

So April 20th fights will begin at 4:30 p.m. live there at the Alamodome. The doors will open at 3:30 p.m.

And so let me introduce to you, he hails out of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He is the WBC Super Welterweight World Champion. He has been a pro since 2005 and he started professionally at the age of 15. Right now at the age of 22 he’s obviously Mexico’s champion and current boxing super star. Let me introduce to you the champion at 154 pounds, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Saul?

Canelo

I’m very happy. The time is near. I like the response that all the fans and the media have given me. I’m very, very motivated and willing/ready to give my best once I step into that ring come Saturday the 20th.

Q

Very good. Hey, I just wanted to ask you, do you think that a victory in this fight against Trout makes it a no-brainer that your next fight should be against Floyd Mayweather Jr.?

And also on that, what does it mean to you to be considered, like Oscar said, Mexico’s champion and boxing super star in the country now? Do you think that you really have elevated to that spot? Thank you very much.

Canelo

To answer your question, right now my focus is 100% only on Austin Trout and that’s all I’m thinking of. After the fight, we’ll sit down, discuss what’s next, but right now I’m focused only on Austin Trout and, God willing, winning this fight.

Your second question, it’s an honor. I’m very, very honored to hear someone like Oscar mention me in those words. I love it. It does thrill me but I’d rather the people say it and me continue to do my job inside the ring.

Q

Canelo, going into this fight when the deal was being done I guess there were people that were in your camp that weren’t really high on the fight but that you continued to press for it because it was that you personally wanted to sort of prove a lot of the critics wrong and because you hadn’t really fought any top fighters to take on one of the elite fighters in the division.

Can you talk about your mindset, as far as demanding that fight and maybe going against what some of your advisors and people close to you thought about the match up?

Canelo

The team, after the fight with Cotto we had decided that’s the fight we wanted. And yes, we sat down and talked to our promoter, Golden Boy, made the decision that was who we wanted. They got to work and that’s where we’re at now and we’re all happy that we’re all in agreement.

Q

But am I wrong that there were people, at least initially that were not-I mean they were going to do what Canelo ultimately wanted them to do, but that they weren’t really pressing the issue? They thought maybe there could be a different fight or a better fight but that you insisted on this fight?

Canelo

Oh yeah, it was brought up that there are other fights and let’s take other avenues but I wanted this fight and that’s why we’re here on this call today and with the fight coming up on the 20th.

Q

I mean obviously you’ve been a champion now for a while. You fought some good fighters and that sort of thing and been active, but do you view this as your best opponent and also sort of like I guess maybe your moment of truth to sort of prove to anybody that might doubt your abilities that you are for real because you’re taking on one of the best fighters out there coming off the win against Cotto?

Canelo

There’s always going to be critics but criticism is also constructive and in this particular case it’s always your next fight that they’re going to criticize or talk about and that’s your toughest fight. This particular fight, yes, the one in turn, it is the toughest and we’ll silence the critics after.

Q

Oscar, let me ask you a quick question. Listen, you were a guy, when you were boxing, pretty much took on everybody that was there, especially as a welterweight and above, every top name, all the guys that people maybe rated ahead of you.

I’m curious from your perspective. What do you think it says about the competitive nature and just the attitude of Canelo to just basically say to everybody around him, “Listen, I don’t want to hear about any other names. I want the guy I think’s the next best guy in the weight class. I want to fight Austin Trout.” What does it say about Canelo as a fighter that he would just demand this caliber of a fight?

Oscar De La Hoya

It speaks volumes of such a young man. At the age of 22 already wanting to fight the very best. Austin Trout is a very dangerous opponent. Just like every other opponent, yes it’s dangerous, but Austin Trout is an undefeated fighter, WBA champion.

You’re right. People were worried, were concerned but one of those people wasn’t me. I know Canelo’s abilities. I know his style. I know that he loves fighting southpaws. But it speaks volumes.

At the age of 22 years old, if you compare Saul’s career to anybody else’s, anybody else who’s elite, they would never take this chance or this type of fight ever, including myself, including a Floyd Mayweather, including anybody. This is a test that he wanted and we’re obviously hoping for the best.

Q

What did you see in Austin Trout’s style and what do you think his strengths and weakness are?

Canelo

We had Cotto in mind. We wanted to fight Miguel Angel Cotto but obviously when he beat him we saw a fight that we wanted to do. Austin Trout’s undefeated. He’s a world champion, very difficult style, strong southpaw, but this also gave me the motivation to go on and fight one of the best and we consider him as one of the best out there.

Q

My question to Canelo and Oscar, you did fight a lot of guys. You fought the best guys and you lost some tough fights, Mosley, Trinidad, and I understand there’s a rematch clause for this fight. Can you discuss the notion of a rematch clause and from Canelo’s standpoint, from your guy’s standpoint, what that means?

Oscar De La Hoya

Well obviously, yes, if you want to be the best you have to fight the best and I had the privilege of fighting the very best, which obviously a lot of people appreciated. This is no different. Canelo, at the young age of 22, is already going to fight the best.

The rematch clause is obviously-whatever happens in the fight, if it’s a great fight then let’s do it again. Why not? That’s the way we see it. Canelo winning or Austin winning, it being a draw, if it’s going to be a great fight then why not do it again?

Canelo

It’s something you respect and it depends on the outcome of the fight, but yes, like Oscar mentioned, if it’s a great fight and the fans want to see it then yes we consider it, definitely.

Q

Okay. Also, Oscar, you’ve made a lot of comparisons between this fight and the Chavez/Whitaker fight. Can you discuss the element of that fight? You have a great Mexican warrior against a boxer who’s also a southpaw and also the location. And also you could have Canelo address the notion of being compared to that night and the two double fights and the meaning it has to his country?

Oscar De La Hoya

Absolutely. I’ve compared this event to a lot of past fights that took place. For instance, when I fought Fernando Vargas the importance to me as a fighter to convince people that I was the real deal. When I fought Ike Quartey those types of fights convinced people that I could fight.

Even when Chavez fought Pernell Whitaker the magnitude of event in San Antonio was like no other. It put boxing on the map in San Antonio. So all of those three fights that I just mentioned, Canelo right now is in that same position. He’s going to put boxing back on the map in San Antonio with the event. I mean we’re well over 35,000 tickets sold.

And this fight is the defining fight for Canelo Alvarez. This fight, if everything goes well, him winning this fight will take him over the top and will get the respect from the critics who don’t believe. So it’s a very important fight, but it’s a fight that the people are going to enjoy and I think both fighters are going to really, really fight their hearts out come April 20th.

Canelo

I’m very honored. I’m very proud to be even included and compared into those comparisons and making history, fighting in a historic place. That’s what motivates me even more and to be fighting in front of so many Mexicans. I’m very happy.

Q

So you embrace this opportunity and do you think that it will bring out the best in you, a tough opponent and a large supportive atmosphere and the history of one of the greatest champions in Mexican history?

Canelo

Yes of course. Yes, I’m very honored. I’m very proud. That’s what we’ve been training for very hard because we want to show that we belong here. We’re ready for this and because it’s a big responsibility and we want to make everybody proud.

Q

Oscar, this questions for you. Have you given Canelo much advice and if so what?

Oscar De La Hoya

Absolutely. There are times where I-we can see him in the gym or at press conferences or talk to him over the phone or even send text messages, just little things. It’s amazing how Saul is so mature for his age. He’s got his head on his shoulders.

He’s well advanced in terms of his abilities inside the ring. He is just a seasoned veteran at the age of 22. He’s thinking like a veteran champion and that is just incredible to just talk to him. When I’m giving him advice he already knows. He already knows.

It kind of I feel, yes, like I do want to take him under my wing and I do want to guide him and wish the best for him but he already knows everything there is to know. I can give him little tips in here that are going to work inside the ring or outside the ring but he’s just such an intelligent and, like I said, seasoned veteran inside and outside the ring so it really is an honor to work with him.

Q

Yes, they say that if you wait long enough what goes around eventually comes around. Nearly 20 years ago in September of 1993 there was fight before a huge crowd at the Alamodome between a great Mexican champion in Julio Cesar Chavez and a slick African American southpaw in Pernell Whitaker.

I wanted to ask Canelo how familiar he is with that fight and what possible similarities or dissimilarities does he see between what’s going to happen in this fight and what happened in that fight?

Canelo

Yes, it is a very similar fight. I watched it on video several times and Austin Trout, like Pernell Whitaker, is a southpaw, slick, difficult fighter. He’s very difficult but that’s what we’re training hard for. We’re training hard for that and come the 20th, the night of the fight, we’re going to make it where it’s not so difficult for us.

Q

It seems like most people are seeing this as a puncher against a boxer. Do you feel that perhaps your boxing skills are unappreciated, at least here in the United States? And while I know you respect Austin’s boxing ability, what’s your level of respect for his punching power?

Canelo

Many people focus just on my power but they don’t see that I’m very fast and know how to move in the ring as well. So that’s something that, yeah, they’ll see.

And Trout is a strong fighter. He showed it. He showed it with Cotto and he is a very strong fighter but that’s what makes me very happy, motivated, working hard and I’ll show it all come fight night.

Q

You are undefeated. Trout is undefeated. What is going to be the key to victory?

Canelo

The key is not to get desperate, not to get wild. Take round per round, win round per round and see what comes up and counter that during the fight.

Q

I have a two-part question for Canelo. Just one, how motivating is it for you to fight Trout knowing that he beat your brother, Rigoberto, a couple years ago and if Austin Trout was even on your radar at the time of that fight?

Canelo

Yes, definitely, it’s a blood revenge that I’m looking at. I’m very motivated for it. I was there at the fight when he beat Rigoberto, my brother. And I felt such an inability to do something but now it’s here and I’m very motivated and that is a big factor.

Q

The question is for both Oscar and Canelo. In the future, is there still a possibility of a fight against Victor Ortiz?

Oscar De La Hoya

Look, the focus right now is on Austin Trout and after that we’ll decide but Canelo said to fight the best in the world.

Q

Okay, Canelo, this fight was originally scheduled for Cinco de Mayo weekend but moved back to April 20th due to a falling out with Floyd Mayweather. Are you at all disappointed that you’re not fighting on Cinco de Mayo weekend?

Canelo

No, on the contrary I’m very happy to be fighting on April 20th. Look at the response that the people have had, the press has had. Even though it’s been a short time to put it together I’m very excited, very happy about it.

Q

How do you envision this fight with Austin Trout? And coming out victorious, are you interested in a fight with Miguel Angel Cotto?

Canelo

We all know Austin Trout’s undefeated, tough. It’s a very difficult fight but that’s what we’re training for, preparing for, to come out victorious. Right now my focus is just on Austin Trout. But like I said, after the fight we’ll sit down and we want the best fights and yes, of course, Miguel Angel Cotto is a great fighter.

Kelly Swanson

Okay, great, actually that was our last question for Canelo. So we would like to see if you’d like to make one last comment before we switch over to Austin Trout.

Canelo

Thank you everybody. I’m very happy for all the support that I’ve received and I’ll be waiting for everybody in San Antonio on the 20th. Thank you all.

Kelly Swanson

Okay, now at this time I’m going to turn this call back over to Oscar De La Hoya and he will make the introductions for Mr. Trout. Oscar?

Oscar De La Hoya

Thank you very much, Kelly. I greatly appreciate it. He is the WBA Super Welterweight World Champion. As we all know, he captured the world title by defeating Rigoberto Alvarez, who is Canelo’s brother, on February 5th, one day after my birthday in Guadalajara, Mexico.

He did beat a very tough and in his prime Miguel Cotto to defend his world title in a very impressive fashion in hostile territory out at Miguel Cotto’s second home at the Garden in New York. He’s no stranger to going to people’s backyards and winning fights inside that squared circle.

He is fighting for the Unified World Title on April 20th. With a record, an impressive record I may add, of 26-0 and 14 knockouts, out of Las Cruces, New Mexico, Austin Trout.

Austin Trout

Thank you all for being here. I’m very excited about this coming fight April 20th. I’ve said this many times before, this is a fight that should happen, two undefeated fighters, to undefeated champions in their prime and put it all on the line.

I’m praying that after this win it’ll put me in a position to be your superstar like we want to be. But first things first is we have to get through this beast called Canelo. So I’m very happy to be here and shoot away. I’m an open book.

Q

Hey, when you and Louie look at Canelo do you see a one-trick pony, a guy that’s strong but a fairly uncomplicated fighter or do you see skills and suddenly they’re really going to challenge your skills?

Trout

No, no, he definitely has skills that are going to challenge my skills. He’s fast. He’s strong. He has good reflexes. He’s explosive. As far as the style goes, we’ve been fighting his style our whole life. We don’t think his style’s necessarily going to give us problems but the skills that he brings within that style are going to be a bit of a problem.

Q

Canelo said earlier that he feels like his boxing skills are under appreciated. By the same token, do you feel like maybe your punching power is underestimated?

Trout

I definitely do. In every fight I’ve been in I’ve marked up everybody I’ve fought. They’ve been reluctant to come in and I’ve fought in super middleweights and middleweights and I’ve hurt them and even dropped them. So I think my punching power is very underestimated.

Q

Hey, I just wanted to ask you, I mean when you talked about that skill within his style, obviously it’s his punching power. How do you know that over the course of 12 rounds that you can stand up to the power that you’re going to see from Canelo?

And obviously the other factor is sort of the home arena advantage that he will probably have in Antonio. Is that something that’s going to affect you or not? Thank you.

Trout

It’s never affected me before and I don’t plan on it affecting me again. The crowd can’t do anything but cheer for him. They can’t even give him water. They can’t breathe for him. They can’t punch for him. So I’m not worried about the crowd.

And about surviving his power for 12 rounds, you know, we’ve been in with stronger guys for 12 rounds and we banged out stronger guys for 12 rounds. I’m not saying I’m not worried about it. Of course that’s why we’re training and we’re having such a hard camp to make sure that we’re prepared for that, but I don’t see it being a major factor, especially if we execute our game plan.

Q

Hey, the comparisons have been made to the Chavez/Whitaker fight and I think it’s a good comparison, a great Mexican champion against a good African American southpaw. Have you watched that fight, because Canelo says he has, and do buy into the history and the comparisons between this fight and that one?

Trout

I do see a very similar comparison. First of all, let’s just say “Sweet Pea” is my favorite fighters. But the thing of it between me and “Sweet Pea” is that I could punch a bit. There are things I saw that he did in the fight that he could’ve done to make it a lot less close that he could’ve done to pull away from Chavez.

The best way to not let history repeat itself is knowing your history. So yes, I’ve definitely watched the fight. We’ll make our adjustments because Chavez Sr. is not Canelo and I’m not Sweet Pea. But there are very similar comparisons.

Q

Okay. My second question is you fought in hostile territory before most impressively, I guess, in your last fight against Cotto. Put us in the ring with you that night in how you were able to shut out the crowd. I mean you said you were going to do that and do you anticipate being able to do that again?

Trout

One thing I was saying is that if they’re going against me my goal is to set them up, not give them anything to cheer for and that’s the same mind set we’re going into this fight. If they’ve don’t have anything to cheer for then they won’t be able to cheer.

I know in the beginning, of course, while they’re excited they’re going to cheer for everything he does. If he sneezes my way they’ll go and get excited for it, but eventually as the fight goes on you’ll see the crowd getting quieter and quieter or even switch to my side like they’ve done before.

Q

My question is on the Whitaker/Chavez theme the real comparison I think you obviously would like to avoid is the outcome. Whitaker, by most accounts, won that fight pretty handily, yet he was given a draw.

Are you worried about getting a fair shake? The crowd’s going to be very pro Alvarez. Does that worry you about getting a fair shake in this fight?

Trout

It does a bit. We know Texas is a WBC country, but I can’t focus, I can’t use any energy to dwell on things I can’t control. All I can do is just focus on what I can control and that’s what I have to do in the ring.

We don’t want to go out of the game plan. We don’t want to break character to force something that’s not there. So we’re going to just stick to our guns and make sure that we do our absolute best and if it goes to the judges then it’s really in God’s hands. If the judges want to jerk me, that’s between them and God and I have to ask for that later.

Q

One other question, I think I read something about something you do in the Las Cruces area called “Club KO” or something like that. Are you actively involved in that and going to schools in that area?

Trout

Yes, we definitely are. Club KO is just a little club I put together where I go and try to KO some things that are problems in school. One of them is bullying. Another one is peer pressure. And we just try to give them some kinds of tools that they can use to get out of a bad situation that they’re in and by doing that we end up knocking out these problems.

Q

Now when you fought Miguel late last year and you got the win that was sort of what everybody would view as your defining fight. You took on one of the biggest names and one of the best fighters in the weight class. To those who weren’t that familiar with Austin Trout you proved yourself and probably made a lot of fans with that fight.

I’m wondering, Canelo is in a similar situation and he’s got a lot of the fans but a lot of fans want to see him prove himself against one of the elite fighters in the 154 pound weight class. I’m wondering what you think it says about him that he went and demanded to fight you, which not a lot of guys demand to fight Austin Trout? What was your reaction to knowing that this was the one and only fight that he really wanted?

Trout

I have much respect for Canelo for demanding this fight. Some people don’t want to fight Austin Trout, but when his people didn’t want him to fight me then he made his demands known and as a hungry true champion should he called out for the best. So there’s much respect to him for that and for putting his foot down and making that happen.

And I just thank the fans as well because I think it was the outcry from the fans that put the pressure to make him make those demands.

Q

Okay. And also one of the things that he mentioned in his portion of this call was talking about one of his great motivations for making that demand, really wanting to fight you, besides unifying the titles and have a big fight against another champion was his desire and motivation for revenge because you had defeated his older brother when you won your title. So I wanted to know your take on trying to now go 2-0 against family, Alvarez, Canelo certainly regarded as the better of the two?

And also if you could talk about what you mentioned to me on Twitter a little while ago about your thoughts about the rematch clause being one way action for him but not for you? Thank you, Austin. Good luck in the fight.

Trout

Thank you. It’s all motivation. It really has nothing to do with him or his brother. But with the legacy he’s considered one of the best so we want to fight the best. He also has that WBC belt and one of my goals is to be the undisputed champion.

And I’ve had this goal since I was a young boy. So it’s a lifelong work that I’ve been putting in to make this goal happen. That is more motivation, in my opinion, than a two-year old revenge policy that he’s going for.

We beat his brother two years ago and now it’s so important now? I’m not buying it because if that was the case he’d be trying to fight Mundine and Rubio and some other guys that beat his brother. I’m not the only one.

But it’s all motivation. To be 2-0 against the Alvarezes will be great, but more importantly, to beat somebody who’s considered the best and to take that WBC belt, those are my motivations and I think those are imperative for my legacy.

Q

And what about the rematch clause stuff?

Trout

Yeah, the rematch clause is only one way. When I win the clause could be in effect, but if he wins they go about their business. It shows to me a lack of confidence in their fighter. My team believes in me 100% against anybody.

And I know, as you know, De La Hoya and Richard Schaefer tried to not make this fight happen at every turn. When they changed the fight from Vegas to San Antonio there was talk of Angulo being their pony, but that’s when Canelo put his foot down, like a champ, and said, “No, I want Trout.”

They tried hard not to make a fight, but I wonder how they must feel for him knowing that your team doesn’t have the utmost confidence in you. I don’t know that feeling. My team believes in me.

Q

It’s been well documented that there have been plans for the two of you to fight on the under card of Floyd Mayweather vs. Robert Guerrero on May 4th but Canelo ended up not taking the fight on that day and he’s said multiple times that he wants to be Floyd’s next opponent.

Does this desire of his to fight Mayweather down the road strike you as a bit of a sign of disrespect, like he’s looking through you and towards his next possible opponent?

Trout

I don’t necessarily think its disrespect. If he is overlooking me that’s better for me because regardless if he wants to fight, whoever he wants to fight later, he still has to deal with me on April 20th. I look at it as an advantage if they are looking over me, which they definitely shouldn’t.

He’s been doing this a lot and things just haven’t been going his way. So I like the trend that he’s setting with this whole overlooking people.

Q

Canelo has approached superstar status in the world of boxing and while he has certainly put together an impressive resume, fans, even with victories against Miguel Cotto, have been a little bit slower to come around in support of you. Do you feel uncomfortable being perceived by some as a B-side of some of these big fights that you’re being put on?

Trout

No, no, I don’t feel uncomfortable as being the B-side. I mean I’m more comfortable as the A-side but it doesn’t bother me because really the B-side is a matter of state of mind. I don’t feel like I’m on the B-side, no matter what people say.

And I’m coming to win. I’m not coming for a paycheck. If you look at the pay you’ll see that that’s clearly right, that I’m not coming for just a paycheck. I’m coming for the win. I’m coming for the respect. That’s what I’m fighting for, to get the respect in this game that I feel like I deserve.

Q

Hey, Austin, it seems like a lot of fighters are apprehensive about going on the road to fight someone like say Canelo in front of 35,000 fans. You seem to take great pride in it.

So until you are able to establish yourself as a hometown attraction do you feel like this is going to be your legacy, like you’re going to be boxing’s next road warrior, if not already?

Trout

Definitely. I feel like the fighter that just fights at home and claims to be a world champion is not representing the world correctly. Even after the fact where I feel like I’ve established myself, as a hometown attraction I still wouldn’t mind traveling and extending my belts around the world.

The greats did it. Ali did it. He fought all over the place. Plus I like to travel and I like to see other people in their cultures. It’s not a problem for me at all.

Q

You brought up the great champions like Ali. Do you feel like you’re helping put the world back in world champion, because a lot of guys, they got comfortable just fighting at home, fighting in the U.S.? You’re ready to become the globetrotter?

Trout

Definitely. I would love to bring it back to the golden age where the best fought the best, where we could have these wonderful trilogies or things like that. And again, traveling around the world to defend a world title-we’re trying to represent the world as a champion.

Q

Austin, talk a little bit about that just. You know El Paso. It’s a boxing town. You’re just right next door to us but you also have the Hispanic culture that might go for Canelo.

How big is this fight? I mean do you see it just being-it’s an elite fight. You two are elite fighters. You guys are going at it for one night. And you know, one of you guys are going to come out on top.

Trout

I think it’s just huge for boxing. This is the type of fight that could bring back boxing to the golden age where Leonard’s, Duran’s and the Hagler’s all fought each other. I think that me and Canelo are leading by example on what a world champion should do and how they should fight.

And as far as El Paso goes, I know me being born in El Paso, raised in Las Cruces, New Mexico, I’m sure we’ve got a great division going there because the Mexican blood is thick. I’m just glad that I could be a part of this type of event.

Q

Austin, I wanted to ask you a little bit, obviously boxers have great confidence, very, very confident individuals, but after your win against Cotto was that just bumped up a couple more notches and you felt like, “Hey, I could take on anybody?”

Trout

To be honest, I knew I could win. I had to prove it to everybody, same thing here. So my confidence…all I ask for is a chance to prove my work and what a great way with an undefeated champion like Canelo Alvarez.

Q

I wanted to ask you, do you think your fight in New York, fighting in front of Puerto Rican fans is going to help you for this fight down in San Antonio with the Mexican fans? And also, do you think you’re going to help start a new tradition seeing that it’s Fiesta weekend down there and there are probably going to be a lot of people out there, probably over 40,000, you think so?

Trout

I hope we can start a tradition and not just with San Antonio but just with a fight like these going forward. Like I said, there are fights that should happen. If you have a belt, then your next move should be to get another belt, to unify divisions.

I definitely feel like the Garden experience is going to help me prepare for this fight. The fight in the Garden was hostile but it wasn’t as big. So it’s a step up from the fight in the Garden. But nonetheless, like I said, God puts me on the path to prepare me for things like this and I feel like everything I’ve been through is working for helping me become on a stage like this.

Q

Okay, you’re making this a family affair by taking on Canelo. How do you feel knowing that you could win another world title by defeating another member of the same family?

Trout

It’s all pretty much a coincidence, to be honest. His brother had a belt. He has a belt. It’s not like I’m gunning for the Alvarez family. I’m not trying to be the Alvarez destroyer or anything like that. But if another one of the brothers does catch a belt, well then he’d be on my hit list too, you know what I mean?

Q

Okay, and the most famous fighter to come out of New Mexico was the late Johnny Tapia. Did you grow up watching Tapia and admiring him? Did you by any chance get to meet him coming up?

Trout

I got to meet him, definitely. I did watch him growing up and actually Johnny Tapia, when I saw him on TV, as a world champion, he showed me that I didn’t have to go to Philly or to these other places where I thought you had to be to be a good pro in order to make it as a world champion. I could stay in Cruces. Him and Louie Burke and Danny Romero, they all paved the way for me to be able to stay in New Mexico and perfect my craft.

Swanson

Okay, great. That was our last question, Austin. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us. If you have one last comment or a final comment you’d like to share with the media before we wrap it up please feel free.

Trout

No, this is going to be a great event. I’m expecting nothing less but the best from Canelo. We know what we brings to the table and I’m more than happy to match him in intensity and fierce. Expect fireworks. This is going to be a good fight.

Swanson

Okay, great. Thank you so much. Media, thank you so much for joining us today. You will be receiving your Fight Week schedule shortly. So we appreciate the coverage. We look forward to your stories and thanks again. Bye.

END OF CALL

Canelo vs. Trout, a 12-round Super Welterweight World Championship Unification fight for Canelo’s WBC title, Trout’s WBA title and the vacant Ring Magazine title, is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, Canelo Promotions and Leija & Battah Promotions and sponsored by Corona and AT&T. The co-main event will be a 10-round fight between undefeated prospects Omar Figueroa Jr. of Weslaco, Texas and Abner Cotto of Caguas, Puerto Rico for the vacant WBC Silver Lightweight Championship which is presented in association with Miguel Cotto Promotions. The fights will air live on SHOWTIME at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT with Canelo vs. Trout being presented in association with Greg Cohen Promotions. SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® is available in Spanish on secondary audio programming (SAP). Preliminary fights will air on SHOWTIME EXTREME at 8 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).

Newly released seating priced at $150 and $100, plus applicable taxes, fees and services charges, with a ticket limit of eight per person, will only be available for purchase at the Alamodome box office and go on sale Monday, April 15 at noon CT.