Canelo Alvarez/Photo courtesy of Golden Boy Promotions
Newly crowned junior middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez of Mexico was in Los Angeles on Wednesday to get a second opinion on the avulsion fracture in his right thumb sustained during his ninth-round knockout of Liam Smith on Sept. 17 in Arlington, Texas.
Alvarez fights under the Golden Boy Promotions banner. Its president, Eric Gomez, said Alvarez was going to visit hand and wrist specialist Dr. Kenneth R. Sabbag to make sure that the therapy ordered by Alvarez’s personal physician is all it will take for Alvarez’s recovery.
Gomez said that depending on how things go, Alvarez could be ready to fight again by “early next year.” As for an opponent, Gomez was asked if Willie Monroe Jr. remains a possible opponent for that next fight.
There was talk from Gomez before Alvarez beat Smith that the winner of the undercard fight between Monroe (21-2, 6 KOs) and Gabriel Rosado, who also fights for Golden Boy, could be next for Alvarez. Monroe emerged via wide unanimous decision. But Monroe said in a statement this week he now believes Golden Boy has no intention of giving him the fight.
“I don’t think it’s Canelo himself, but it is his team,” said Monroe, who boxes for Banner Promotions. “I know Canelo would fight me. I think it is his trainers who fear that they can’t prepare Canelo for my style.”
Monroe, of Rochester, N.Y., is a southpaw.
“If he is a true man, they should stick to their word,” Monroe said. “The plan was for the winner of that fight to be able to fight Canelo. They thought Rosado would win, and he would just be a guy that would get pounded by Canelo.
“If the shoe was on the other foot, and it was me who did not want to fight an aggressive fighter, I would look like a punk.”
Gomez during an Aug. 29 conference call did not say the winner of Monroe-Rosado would definitely get Alvarez, but he did say, “The winner of this fight very well could be fighting Canelo in December.”
Well, December wasn’t going to happen once Alvarez injured his thumb, but that hasn’t changed Monroe’s desire to fight Alvarez. Gomez on Wednesday addressed that, saying all options remain possible.
“As is customary with Canelo, we’re going to leave all the doors open,” Gomez said. “We would consider anybody. That’s what’s customary. We’re not going to close any doors.”
