Here is boxing writer Keith Idec?s inside look at the sport:
FEATURED FIGHT: Canelo Alvarez vs. James Kirkland. Their 12-round junior middleweight match is expected to draw about 35,000 fans to Houston?s Minute Maid Park on Saturday night. Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) will fight for the first time since escaping a difficult 12-rounder against Cuban southpaw Erislandy Lara (20-2-2, 12 KOs) with a split-decision win July 12 in Las Vegas. Kirkland (32-1, 28 KOs), who?ll box without estranged trainer Ann Wolfe in his corner, will end a 17-month layoff in this HBO “World Championship Boxing” main event. The powerful southpaw from Austin, Texas, hasn?t boxed since he knocked out Passaic?s Glen Tapia (23-1, 15 KOs) in the sixth round of their December 2013 fight in Atlantic City. Coverage of the Alvarez-Kirkland clash is scheduled to start immediately after a 9 p.m. replay of the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao fight.
LOCAL LOOK: Teaneck?s Aadam Ali has qualified to compete in the National Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions, set to begin Monday in Las Vegas. Ali outpointed John Bauza in the New Jersey Golden Gloves? 141-pound, open-division championship match April 25 in Jersey City to reach the national tournament.
THE FINAL BELL: Manny Pacquiao?s shoulder surgery Wednesday was considered a success. The Filipino superstar?s recovery will keep him from training for four to six months. It?ll take much longer than that to recover from the image damage he did by complaining about the effect the slight tear to his right rotator had on his decisive defeat to Mayweather on Saturday night in Las Vegas. Boxers usually enter the ring with nagging injuries, yet rarely reveal those ailments after fights because it is an accepted reality of such a physically abusive sport. Mayweather?s damaged hands are notoriously fragile, but he regularly gets commission-approved injections to dull the pain, fights through it and keeps his mouth shut. Had Pacquiao approached his shoulder injury the same way, he wouldn?t be facing frivolous lawsuits and public backlash.
