Round And Round, Featuring What's Next For Nonito Donaire, Canelo Alvarez, Adonis Stevenson And Others

For a couple hours, it looked like maybe Golden Boy Promotions would beat Main Events to one of the big four networks after all, and the vehicle was to be the back of that freckled, red-headed Mexican kewpie doll Canelo Alvarez. ESPN's Dan Rafael quoted unnamed sources saying Alvarez-Josesito Lopez was "likely" to be on CBS Sept. 15, months ahead of NBC's date with Main Events, but then a subsequent version of the story backtracked and said, no, it's going to be on Showtime.

Where to start? Alvarez would be as good a fighter as any to feature in boxing's long-awaited return to network TV, given his popularity, a basically exciting style and a level of talent that is a point of dispute in the boxing world but that could eventually prove legit. The match-up itself is bad, the result of multiple opponents falling through; there's been a Spinal Tap drummer-like procession of combusting Alvarez foes for this Sept. 15 date. Lopez is as honest a pug as there is, with a pleasing, brawl-oriented demeanor in the ring and fresh off a big upset win over Victor Ortiz, but he's spent most of his career at junior welterweight, has had one fight at welterweight and is now moving up to junior middleweight. He deserves a career-high payday, but you wonder if this isn't a dangerous way to get it and whether plying his trade at lower weights might not have been the smarter move in the long-term.

Then there's the fact that this fight is wading right into a multi-front war that features Golden Boy pitting this card against Top Rank, which plans a Sept. 15 middleweight clash between another popular Mexican, Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., and Sergio Martinez. That fight is on HBO, which, as we discussed in Quick Jabs earlier this evening, opens a new rift in the war. This fight being on CBS at the same time another major card was airing would inevitably be a storyline for any mainstream media coverage "boxing's return to network TV" gets, putting the sport's dysfunction right on full display. Oh, and the dueling cards would dilute the audience for both shows, hurting ratings for the CBS show in a way that could damage the chances of a second network date for boxing and reducing the energy in the live audience that helps makes Alvarez as electric an attraction as he is.

There is some tiny bit of unmitigated good news in that the card could feature a power-punching feast with featherweights Jhonny Gonzalez and Daniel Ponce De Leon squaring off. Well, as "unmitigated good news" as this c.f. is likely to get. And I guess it's good enough news that the fight now looks to be on Showtime rather than CBS, because it wouldn't have been boxing's best foot forward. Unless the unnamed sources were right the first time around. Oh, unnamed sources, how you bedevil boxing reporters.

But those aren't the only fights in the works. There are fights for the people in the headline in the works, but also fights falling through for some folk and some talked-about match-ups worth contemplating. Let's go Round and Round.

Source: http://queensberry-rules.com/2012-articles/july/round-and-round-featuring-whats-next-for-nonito-donaire-canelo-alvarez-adonis-stevenson-and-others.html

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