Standing in the Chick Hearn press room with his brazenly muscled arms crossed with hands in his armpits, which are probably muscled as well, Mexican sensation Saul ?Kid Cinnamon? Alvarez was forced to stand to the side and await his turn to speak.
At the podium was Josesito Lopez, who had just shocked the boxing world by breaking Victor Ortiz? jaw and forcing him to quit on his stool; it was Lopez? time to shine, and Canelo would just have to wait his turn to speak to the filled to capacity press room inside the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles on June 23rd.
Canelo was providing interviews just outside the press room, as was his mega-popular promoter Oscar De La Hoya, while Lopez spoke inside from the podium, yet the room was full to capacity to hear the first spoken words of the man to break Vicious? jaw.
Just prior to the Ortiz/Lopez clash, his promoter Golden Boy Promotions made an ill-fated press-teleconference call in which they pre-announced that Ortiz would get the September call, and following the fight, it was an almost comical scene as Alvarez was shown shaking his head in disgust and disbelief on the jumbo-tron inside Staples Center as well as on Showtime cameras.
Photo: Tom Hogan-Hoganphotos / GBP
It was the second time that month that Canelo was ringside scouting a potential opponent for his Mexican Independence Day dance, as on June 2nd he was ringside along with TMT?s 50 Cent and Los Angeles Laker Metta World Peace in Carson, California, where Austin Trout put on a less than dismal performance against Delvin Rodriguez, bombing his audition for a Vegas showdown with the young Mexican.
So here stood a befuddled, somewhat irritated but still calm mannered Canelo, even politely posing for a picture with a person who approached him near the stage, who was forced to stay sedentary as his next opponent reveled in his self proclaimed ?Rocky moment?, and only after GBP?s Richard Schaefer attempted to rile up the press in the room with a declaration that Canelo?s fight would televised on ?free? TV by CBS, was the fighter able to speak for himself.
The first and best question that Canelo was hit with was if he was frustrated being that the September opponent was continuously becoming harder and harder to be filled. Canelo answered the question graciously but politically, and no matter his answer, it had to be tough as what I deemed the ?Canelo Curse? continued.
Canelo had quipped that he was ready for any challenge, be it Manny Pacquiao, stated that Cotto was fresh off his May fight and that Floyd Mayweather was ?on vacation?
Flash forward to present time, opponent secure in Lopez, date and venue set, and Canelo is training in a private gym in Los Angeles with Lopez about 45 miles east in Riverside, both preparing for their Mexican day mash up from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The initial mindset was another mismatch, yet that same sentiment was rang when Lopez stepped in against Ortiz. Lopez pulled off an upset of the year caliber win, within days signed the ever influential advisor Al Haymon and once again finds himself with another big pay day and Showtime televised fight at the Mecca of boxing, Las Vegas.
It?s a win-win for Lopez, who earned a career high of around $100,000 for the Ortiz fight, and will eclipse that number with the Canelo fight, and in the event he loses this time around, there cannot be any knocking of a fighter who boldly jumps up weight classes to face the greatest challenge he can.
Canelo, meanwhile, is in a lose-win situation, where a lopsided victory does nothing to enhance his resume or prove that he can sell pay-per-views since the event is on ?free? Showtime, but a win would be showing that he can fill MGM type seats in what will be his first top billing in Las Vegas and scoring a much cherished mega-match with either Cotto or Mayweather.
Another incentive comes from his boss, DLH, who is offering up $100,000 to the nights best knockout of the event titled ?Knockout Kings? with co-feature bouts between Johnny Gonzalez/Ponce De Leon, Humberto Soto/Marcos Maidana and Leo Santa Cruz against Eric Morel.
If anything Canelo can be guaranteed of, there is one thing that should be for sure: He will never go through the debacle it was this time around of fighting an opponent, because a win and a shot at $100K should provide a sea of more opportunities.
There should be no more standing around with arms crossed after September 15.
