Undefeated WBA 154-pound titleholder Austin Trout said that he and WBC counterpart Saul “Canelo” Alvarez not only “deserve main event status” apart from being the co-feature to Floyd Mayweather vs. Robert Guerrero on May 4, but also, that Alvarez “will not make it” to a desired September clash with Mayweather “because he’s going to lose to me.”

Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya informed RingTV.com on Wednesday that a proposed bout between Alvarez (41-0-1, 31 knockouts) and Trout (26-0, 14 KOs) would not happen on the Showtime Pay Per View card featuring a WBC welterweight defense by Mayweather (43-0, 26 KOs) against Guerrero (31-1-1, 18 KOs) that is slated for the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Instead, De La Hoya said that Alvarez and his management team would meet in Golden Boy’s Los Angeles-based offices on Friday to finalize a deal to meet Trout on April 20 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, on Showtime.

“Canelo’s team called me and said he wanted out of the card on May 4. That’s what’s been going on for the last few days. Finally, they pulled the trigger,” said De La Hoya.

“They wanted a new date. They wanted the Alamodome in San Antonio on April 20. They’re ready to go. That’s what Canelo wants. Canelo wants Trout. They’re coming into the office on Friday. That’s when we hope the deal will get signed, sealed an delivered.”

Alvarez pulled out of the May 4 card because he could not get Mayweather to contractually agree to face him in September before engaging in the Guerrero fight. When that guarantee did not come, Alvarez withdrew from the Las Vegas card, preferring to headline his own show.

“Canelo said he wouldn’t fight on the May 4 undercard unless he had a written contract to fight Floyd [in the fall], assuming he won and assuming Floyd beat Guerrero. Floyd told us he didn’t have a problem fighting Canelo, but he wasn’t going to sign anything now,” said Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer to Yahoo!Sports.

“He said, ‘All of my focus is on Guerrero,’ and I’m not signing anything to fight anybody until after that fight is over. Canelo feels he’s his own man and can carry his own event. He knows there are people who doubt him and, I agree with you, it’s a risky fight for him. But this is what Canelo wants. He is his own boss and we do what the fighters want.”

The Mayweather-Guerrero deal has a rematch clause in the event Mayweather loses.

On Wednesday, Trout applauded Alvarez.

“Good for him. That a boy, Canelo. We should be on our own card, anyway, so I think that’s a good move,” Trout said during a telephone interview with RingTV.com. “We deserve main event status, and you can put that on the record.”

As far as Alvarez’s reasons for pulling out of the May 4 deal?

“That’s alright, because he still won’t make it to Mayweather,” said Trout, emphatically. “He will not make it to Floyd Mayweather because he’s going to lose to me.”

In his past two fights, Trout has unanimously decisioned rugged Delvin Rodriguez and four-time, three-division titlewinner Miguel Cotto in June and December, respectively.

Alvarez has unanimously decisioned five-time beltwinner Shane Mosley last May and scored three knockdowns on the way to last September’s fifth-round knockout over Josesito Lopez.

Photo by Naoki Fukuda

Photo by Robyn Beck, AFP

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]