Promoter Oscar De La Hoya even continued to rather ridiculously refer to this as a "historical" fight, mostly because they promised to "make history" with this fight, which fell apart when they got down to their fourth (at least) choice for Canelo's opponent, and then didn't get the fight on CBS, which they tried to do, as well.
Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KO) is an enormous favorite right now against Lopez (30-4, 18 KO), in large part because most see this as Lopez jumping from 140 to 154. Lopez fought as a welterweight in June and did break Victor Ortiz's jaw and win that fight, so he's shown he can pull a big upset, but even then he weighed in at 144¾ for the fight, and while yes, he won the fight emphatically, he was without question the visibly smaller man in the ring. That could be even worse against Alvarez than it was against Ortiz.
On the flipside, it's still a major fight, because Canelo is a major star. But I can't help but feel like this fight is being made almost entirely out of spite. HBO has a legit PPV attraction in Chavez Jr vs Martinez that same night, and that fight, which is being held at the Thomas & Mack in Vegas, is said to be moving tickets very well. Canelo-Lopez is going to take a ticket hit because it's not the same level of fight.
But it should still do a good number on Showtime, even with many watching the HBO PPV. If everyone has even a shred of respect for their audience, they will at least go out of their way to put the Canelo fight itself on before the Chavez-Martinez fight. I could see a lot of people ordering the PPV and being willing to skip part of the undercard to watch Canelo. And no matter how you slice it, boxing fans are being forced to choose between two notable events, and that's just not good for anyone.
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