Canelo Alvarez looked strong and in charge of his domain when he trounced Brit Liam Smith on Sept. 17 in Texas, and on pay-per-view.

Really, truly, I thought I saw some new wrinkles added to his game and I noted, post-fight, that I saw folks in the Twittersphere giving him more of a chance to beat or capably compete with IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight boss Gennady Golovkin (when that super-fight exits the marination station and teaches the full fruition stage) than I’d seen before.

Maybe the only downside from the event is the diagnosis from doctors that the Mexican WBO 154-pound titlist and RING middleweight champion (48-1-1, 34 knockouts) suffered a fractured right thumb while whacking the Brit en route to a ninth round KO victory.

So, when will we see the redhead, who told the planet he’s the best in the business during his post-win interview, fight next? Is a December date totally off the table? I reached out to Golden Boy Promotions President Eric Gomez for an update.

“We have a meeting with Canelo next week,” Gomez said on Thursday. “The doctors said he was to be out four-to-six weeks and it’ll be two weeks Saturday. He has a doctor appointment around October 17 for an evaluation. He’s running already. He likes to stay in shape. We will all sit down, see what his plans are, talk about what we think could work. No, he won’t fight this year, in 2016. Is there a chance he could fight end of January, early-February? Maybe, we will see what he wants to do. That’s the way we always do it but that’s what we’ll be offering him.”

It’s also too early to even properly engage in conjecture about whom Canelo might fight next. We heard Willie Monroe Jr. volunteer for that gig, after he bettered Gabe Rosado in a middleweight tiff on the Texas undercard but Gomez wasn’t about to rule anyone in or out. He did allow, though, that Canelo has already recently faced two fighters in the same vein, in Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout so…

“We like to keep all our options open,” Gomez said.

He also said the online PPV, with Col. Bob Sheridan and Larry Merchant on the call, did “well.” Merchant thought it snagged about 4,000 buys, at full retail price. Do the math, especially since that pie doesn’t have to get cut up and split to cable/satellite providers…

“It’s the second one we did, after Canelo vs. (Amir) Khan and we are definitely in the digital age, so we are trying different things and trying to stay ahead of the curve,” Gomez noted. “We see with millennials, more and more, they’re wanting to watch things on their devices. They don’t just sit at home and wait for the fights to come on. They go out to dinner or whatever. As I say, we are trying different things.”

So, fans, feel free to weigh in on what you want Canelo to do next, the future of PPVs, whatever. The comment section is below.

…Right below Michael Woods’ awesome signature tag, that is! I mean, come on, how signature IS this signature, anyway?! This is, like, the exclamation point of all exclamation points to ANY article, right?! Geez…I’m shaking here…WAY to much java on National Coffee Day…

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