By Fox Doucette
Reigning WBC champion at junior middleweight Saul “El Canelo” Alvarez (37-0-1, 27 KOs) looks to remain unbeaten in the co-feature of Golden Boy’s “Star Power” pay-per-view Saturday night, September 17, against former Contender reality series participant Alfonso Gomez (23-4-2, 12 KOs). The fight will be one of three championship belts on the line from the WBC in the pay-per-view event.
Alvarez walks the line between a champion and a prospect; he has the title belt and the gaudy record of a great champion but only just turned 21 two months ago and still by his own admission is a work in progress. Alvarez captured the title from Matthew Hatton and defended it with a 12th-round TKO victory against Ryan Rhodes on June 18. His resume is otherwise quite thin, with the only real significant wins coming against a way-past-his-expiration-date Carlos Baldomir and a ninth-round TKO of Jose Miguel Cotto (not to be confused with the Miguel Cotto who holds the WBA super title at 154 and lost to Manny Pacquiao.)
Gomez, on the other hand, has yet to beat a genuine contender and seems to be in more as an opponent than a legitimate title challenger. In his only shot at a world title, he challenged the aforementioned Miguel Cotto for the WBA strap at junior middleweight and got dropped three times en route to the ringside physician refusing to let Gomez answer the bell for round six. Gomez will be a heavy underdog on Saturday night; he is not expected to give a serious push to El Canelo.
This fight is part of a pay-per-view card that begins at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific, and is slated to be the third televised fight. Unlike the rest of the fights, which are in Las Vegas, this fight is at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
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