What Canelo's Next Opponent Might Tell Us

So yeah, there's currently a lot of criticism out there for Mr. Canelo Alvarez. It's understandable, too. Reason away things all you want, fans have a right to see the best fight the best in a timely fashion...and pushing off a Canelo-GGG fight until at least next year is going to rightfully put off fans. Strange how boxing is the only sport I know of where the fans take a back seat (why is the UFC growing in popularity, you ask?).

At any rate, I have no idea what Canelo or his promoter Oscar De La Hoya are truly thinking, so I'm going to hold off criticizing these men outright. It's important to be fair, after all, especially in this age of click bait and knee jerk reactions. With that in mind, though, I feel Canelo's next choice of opponent might speak volumes regarding what his and Oscar's future plans are.

Should Canelo indeed surprise the world and face GGG next, well then all will - or should - be forgiven. Few think that will happen, though, so let's see what the other options are. There's challenging middleweights and junior middleweights out there like David Lemieux, Erislandy Lara and even Andy Lee. Should Canelo face men such as these, there may be good reason to believe the guy seriously wants to challenge himself...perhaps even in prep for a GGG showdown.

Should Canelo go the route of  Danny Garcia, however - or, worse yet, the route of Adonis Stevenson, then we know the parties' over, that he's a guy who is just cashing in while hoping GGG will decline through age or simply go away. Let's hope we don't hear a name from left field mentioned as the man's opponent this time around.

Then, of course, there's the save face move, otherwise known as Billy Joe Saunders. Saunders is a belt holder at middleweight, and like Canelo, has arguably appeared skittish of GGG. Since Saunders isn't seen as too much of a threat, at least in comparison to Golovkin, this may be the guy Oscar and Canelo try to get in the ring. Saunders seems like he may - "may" being the operative word here -  be a modern, risk averse fighter, though so he might simply have no genuine interest in a Canelo challenge.

So, in summations: none of us know where everyone's favorite red haired warrior is headed at this point, but by mid to late summer, the direction may indeed be clear.