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Canelo Alvarez will share card with brother Ricardo on March 8

Fighters Network
13
Jan

Former RING junior middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez was ringside in San Antonio when his 32-year-old brother, Ricardo “Dinamita” Alvarez, won his American debut by majority decision over junior welterweight Rod Salka.

“There was no pressure," said Ricardo following the fight, which took place in December on the undercard of Adrien Broner-Marcos Maidana. "I’m glad that my brother came here to support me, and to be with his family.

“I’m generally happy with my performance. I came out victorious. But I certainly think that there are things that I can improve on. Of course, I would like to fight here again.”

Alvarez entered the ring with a heavy heart in the wake of camp member and former titleholder Javier “Chatito” Jauregui’s death.



“This was hard to do, because he was a really close friend. This was a tough week for us. We’ve known him forever, it seems, ever since we first started boxing,” said Ricardo.

“But life goes on. We had to tough it out and keep going, but it was really hard for us. I am sure that if he had been here, that he would have been happy with my performance and that he would have had no criticism at all.”

On March 8, the Alvarez siblings will go a step further when they share the same card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the site of Canelo's first career loss, to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September.

Canelo Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 knockouts) will headline a Showtime Pay Per View event against fellow Mexican Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18 KOs).

According to Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, plans are for WBC interim titleholder Omar Figueroa (22-0-1, 17 KOs) to make a defense against Ricardo Alvarez (23-2-3, 14 KOs) as part of an event likely to include WBC 122-pound beltholder Leo Santa Cruz (26-0-1, 15 KOs) against Cristian Mijares (49-7-2, 24 KOs).

Also, ex-beltholder Jorge Linares (35-3, 23 KOs) could be matched in a lightweight bout against Japan's Nihito Arakawa (24-3-1, 16 KOs), the latter of whom rose from the canvas twice during a brutal unanimous decision loss to Figueroa in April.

Canelo Alvarez shared his enthusiasm for the opportunity during a Friday press conference in Guadalajara, Mexico, through quotes provided by Golden Boy's Ramiro Gonzalez.

"I'm motivated to return to Las Vegas against a tough opponent who is ready for anything," said Canelo, "and also to share with my brother Ricardo who will seek a world title that night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas [Editor’s note: The fight is for the WBC’s interim lightweight belt; THE RING does not recognize interim belts as world titles.]."

The Alvarez boxing family also includes junior middleweight Rigoberto Alvarez, who in his last two fights, both in 2011, lost unanimous decisions to Austin Trout and Anthony Mundine.

 

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