Monday, September 19, 2016

Canelo has fractured thumb - fight in December is off

Canelo Alvarez suffered a right-thumb fracture in the second-round punch he landed on Liam Smith’s head Saturday, scrapping Alvarez’s plans for a Dec. 10 fight.


A doctor who inspected Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 knockouts) Monday following his ninth-round knockout of Smith to win the World Boxing Organization junior-middleweight title found an avulsion fracture of the right thumb.

“Canelo does not need surgery and the prognosis is excellent,” a Golden Boy Promotions spokesman wrote in a statement released Monday.

“Canelo’s hand will be immobilized for the next six weeks, and he will be unable to fight again in 2016. This does nothing to Canelo’s plans to move up and take on the best in the middleweight division next year.”

Alvarez’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, was eyeing a Dec. 10 fight at Madison Square Garden in New York with the names of middleweights David Lemieux, Billy Joe Saunders and Curtis Stevens mentioned as possible opponents.

Now, Golden Boy Promotions President Eric Gomez said it will be up to Alvarez to either seek a fight in early 2017 or just wait for his scheduled Cinco de Mayo weekend fight in May.

“If he comes off the rest and feels he wants to do a couple fights before [Gennady] Golovkin, we could have a fight in January or February, but he can’t fight in December,” Gomez said.

“It’s up to him as he’s looking forward to September [2017]. September will be the Golovkin fight.”

That’s a confident, fan-pleasing statement in light of the injury as Alvarez, 26, heads to an anticipated meeting with three-belt middleweight champion Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs), who is expected to fight in the late fall.

Saturday night, following Alvarez’s victory, De La Hoya said he’s offered at least a $10 million purse plus undisclosed pay-per-view percentages to Golovkin for a September 2017 bout, but didn’t get an immediate response from Golovkin promoter Tom Loeffler.

Gomez has now heard from Loeffler.

“Tom texted me and said he’ll reach out to me to meet this week,” Gomez said.

Article courtesy of LA Times

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