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Lem’s latest: De La Hoya discusses Mayweather-Alvarez

Fighters Network
03
Jun

With Floyd Mayweather Sr. working as his son’s trainer for the first time in 13 years, Floyd Mayweather Jr. went virtually untouched over the course of a one-sided unanimous decision victory over Robert Guerrero last month.

It was a much different performance from the one a year earlier, when Mayweather emerged victorious but bloodied after a more physical fight against Miguel Cotto.

On Sept. 14, Mayweather (44-0, 26 knockouts), THE RING’s welterweight champion and No. 1-rated pound-for-pound fighter, will face a junior middleweight for only the third time in his career when he meets RING and WBC 154-pound champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 KOs) on Sept. 14.



The question is: Which Floyd will Canelo face that night?

Although Mayweather’s defensive wizardry will be unlike any that Alvarez, 22, has ever faced, Golden Boy President Oscar De La Hoya believes the younger man’s best chances will come during the moments when Mayweather occasionally fights from close range.

“Mayweather will stand in the pocket and fight. He’ll run and he’ll box, but he’ll also stay in the pocket and fight, which can make him vulnerable to being hit and exposed to being hit,” said De La Hoya, whom Mayweather beat by split decision for the WBC’s 154-pound belt in May of 2007.

“Of course, Floyd is dangerous for any fighter, but the thing is that, when the the danger arises, it’s obviously in his experience. So, the question is going to be, ‘Is Mayweather going to beat Canelo solely on his experience?’ My belief is that I doubt it.”

JOSESITO LOPEZ TO THROW OUT THE FIRST PITCH AT DODGER STADIUM

Josesito Lopez (30-5, 18 KOs), of Riverside, Calif., will throw out the first pitch when the Los Angeles Dodgers take on the San Diego Padres to kick off the week ahead of Saturday night’s Showtime-televised welterweight bout with Marcos Maidana (33-3, 30 KOs).

Maidana will be after his third straight stoppage victory against Lopez, having lost his 147-pound debut in February of last year to current IBF beltholder Devon Alexander.

Since falling to Alexander, Maidana has been trained by Robert Garcia, who has guided the careers of Nonito Donaire, Mikey Garcia, and Brandon Rios, among others.

CAN CHAD DAWSON RETURN TO POWER AGAINST ADONIS STEVENSON?

RING and WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson (31-2, 17 KOs) vows that his power and strength will return on Saturday night when he faces heavy-handed super middleweight contender Adonis “Superman” Stevenson (20-1, 17 KOs) in an HBO-televised clash of southpaws from Bell Centre in Montreal.

Dawson, who turns 31 in July, was last in the ring for September’s 10th-round stoppage loss to RING super middleweight champ Andre Ward, who floored Dawson three times.

“No excuses in my last fight. We’ll just say that I’m a different fighter when I’m at 175 pounds. I can say with absolute confidence that my power is back, and not just my power but my strength as well,” said Dawson.

“It’s like I’m stronger in every aspect, and it is playing a huge roll in training camp. I’m strong enough to push myself more miles, strong enough to go more rounds, and I’m stronger at the end of my workouts.”

Stevenson, 35, is coming off a sixth-round stoppage of Darnell Boone in March, avenging a second-round stoppage loss in April of 2010.

In the co-feature, Colombia’s Darley Perez (28-0, 19 KOs) will face former featherweight titleholder Yuriorkis Gamboa (22-0, 16 KOs).

In his last fight, on the undercard of Juan Manuel Marquez’s sixth-round knockout of Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas in December, Gamboa rose from a ninth-round knockdown after scoring two himself to secure a unanimous decision over Michael Farenas.

JOSE PEDRAZA ADDED TO DAWSON-STEVENSON CARD

Also on the Dawson-Stevenson card will be 2008 Puerto Rico Olympian Jose “Sniper” Pedraza (12-0-0, 8 KOs) against Mexico’s Sergio Villanueva (25-2-2, 13 KOs).

“This is another great opportunity to showcase my God-given talent to those watching on HBO,” said Pedraza, 24. “My goal is to come out victorious and use superior boxing skills to defeat my opponent. I’m looking forward to giving the fans a fan-friendly fight.”

JOAN GUZMAN FACES VICENTE MOSQUERA

Dominican fighter Joan “Little Tyson” Guzman (33-1-1, 20 KOs) will face Panamanian Vicente “El Loco” Mosquera (32-2-1, 17 KOs) in a junior welterweight bout on June 28 at the Civic Center in Kissimme, Fla.

In another bout, Puerto Rican featherweight Orlando Cruz (20-2-1, 10 KOs) will fight an opponent to be determined on a show to be broadcast by Telemundo.

JERRY BELMONTES TO FACE ANDREW CANCIO ON ANDRE BERTO-JESUS SOTO KARASS CARD

Junior lightweight Jerry Belmontes (18-1, 5 KOs), of Corpus Christi, Tex., will face Andrew Cancio (14-2-2, 11 KOs), Blythe, Calif., on the July 27 undercard of a show featuring florida welterweights Andre Berto (28-2, 22 KOs) and Keith “One Time” Thurman (20-0, 18 KOs) in separate bouts on a Showtime triple-header from the AT & T Center in San Antonio.

Belmontes is coming off a majority decision victory over Daniel Diaz in April that helped him to rebound from December’s unanimous decision loss to Eric Hunter.

Cancio is coming off September’s unanimous decision loss to Roger Gonzalez after having vanquished former Olympic silver medalist Rocky Juarez by unanimous decision in June of last year.

A former two-time 147-pound beltholder, Berto will try to rebound from November’s unanimous-decision loss to Robert Guerrero against hard-charging Jesus Soto Karass (27-8-3, 17 KOs), who is coming off January’s upset majority decision over Turkey’s Selcuk Aydin.

Berto, 29, of Winter Haven, Fla., has also lost to ex-titleholder Victor Ortiz and scored an eighth-round stoppage over ex-beltholder Carlos Quintana.

Soto Karass, 30, has suffered memorable losses to Mike Jones (twice), as well as ex-beltholder Yuri Foreman and Gabriel Rosado, Alfonso Gomez and Freddy Hernandez, the latter of whom was stopped in the first round by Berto.

A 24-year-old from Clearwater, Fla., Thurman will face Argentina’s hard-hitting Diego Chaves (22-0, 18 KOs), 27, who is in pursuit of his sixth consecutive knockout victory. Thurman, meanwhile, is coming off a unanimous decision rout of Jan Zaveck in March at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Although Thurman failed to notch his ninth straight knockout victory against Zaveck, he won, 120-108, on all three judges’ cards. Prior to facing Zaveck, Thurman scored November’s fourth-round knockout over Quintana.

Photo by Naoki Fukuda

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]

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