Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs Amir Khan Set for May 7th

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs Amir Khan – The new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas Nevada will host a catchweight showdown at 155 lbs between Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and England’s Amir Khan.  The fight will air on HBO PPV in the United States.

The signing answers one of boxing’s biggest questions, and that is “who will ‘Canelo’ be fighting on Cinco de Mayo weekend?”  The truth is that the negotiations were a well-kept secret, as the bout was not one that had made the boxing rumor mill to date.

The match signals the return of Khan to the fold with Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions, where he was promoted up until his last fight against Chris Algieri.

Khan (31-3) has been vocal about hunting down big fights, and this fight will be a major payday.  Khan will also be fighting for the first time at 155 lbs, as he has operated his entire career at welterweight or less.  Khan is eschewing a potentially big-money fight with British rival Kell Brook (35-0) who holds the IBF World welterweight title.  Instead, Khan will fight in a weight class he has never fought in before.  That he gets a shot at the WBC middleweight title at 155 lbs when he has never fought in the weight class, well that is more of a statement on the current state of boxing and the alphabet soups that supposedly govern the sport.

For ‘Canelo’ the announcement should be seen as a major disappointment.  As Middleweight champion at 160 lbs, the weight has been the major issue in formalizing a ‘Canelo’ versus Gennady Golovkin match.  The common thinking was that the Golovkin showdown would come after one more fight that would see ‘Canelo’ further adjust his body to the middleweight division.  Now by taking a fight against a smaller man at a catchweight, the Golovkin superfight seems further away than ever for Alvarez.  The reason the Alvarez vs Khan match caught the boxing world by surprise is that the two fighters are in different weight classes and the fight in itself is not really appealing.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs Amir Khan is on for May 7^th.  Let the “hype” train begin.

The parties took to Twitter to confirm:

Proud to announce on May 7th, 2016 @canelo will return to the ring to face @amirkingkhan #CaneloKhanhttps://t.co/p9Pm7oVN8s

— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) February 2, 2016

And below is the 40 second or so “hype” video from GBP.

Check out The Boxing Channel video “TBC Looks At Saul Alvarez vs Amir Khan”.