For Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s first pay-per-view head-lining fight against Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18 KO’s) on March 8th, Golden Boy Promotions is in the process of stacking the undercard with generally smaller fighters that the casual boxing fans will have a hard time recognizing. This is probably not the wisest move for Golden Boy and Canelo do because the Canelo vs. Angulo fight is hardly a PPV quality fight, and Golden Boy could be making things worse by stacking the undercard with generally smaller guys.
What this card needs is the Adrien Broner vs. Marcos Maidana II rematch and/or Canelo facing Erislandy Lara instead of Angulo, a fighter who was just knocked out. Golden Boy and Canelo need to re-think the idea of making this fight card a PPV bout because it’s doubtful that fans are going to want to pay to see a mismatch in the main event and then 2 mismatches in the undercard.
Canelo’s got his brother Ricardo Alvarez in a prominent fight in this card, and I don’t think he’s a big enough name to attract many fans to purchase this fight. The card needs an actual co-feature to make up for what fans won’t be getting in the main event. If they could add Lucas Matthysse vs. Danny Garcia II to the card, then it might be interesting. You could make that the main event and stick the Canelo-Angulo fight as the co-feature, where it actually belongs.
This is a gamble that Golden Boy appears to be willing to take, because they must feel comfortable that Canelo’s name alone can pull in fans without him facing a quality opponent and without the undercard having interesting fights.
Here’s the undercard fights that are being planned:
WBC interim lightweight champion Omar Figueroa (22-0-1, 17 KO’s) vs. Ricardo Alvarez (23-2-3, 14 KO’s).
WBC super bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (26-0-1, 15 KO’s) vs. Christian Mijares (49-7-2, 24 KO’s).
Lightweight Jorge Linares (35-3, 23 KO’s) vs. Nihito Arakawa (24-3-1, 16 KO’s).
The only one of those fights that could be competitive is the Linares-Arakawa bout, and that’s only because Linares hasn’t looked like the same fighter he once was since his loss to Antonio DeMarco. The Santa Cruz-Mijares fight is a mismatch, as Mijares has a lot of miles on him and he doesn’t have the power to compete against the upper rungs of the division. Figueroa-Alavarez is a mismatch. Ricardo is the older brother of Canelo, but he doesn’t have his talent and he’s going to get blown out by Figueroa.
