Schaefer Talks Canelo Alvarez for Mayweather vs Ortiz Show

Golden Boy Promotions' Richard Schaefer tells ESPN.com's Dan Rafael that he's working to make the September 17 PPV card main evented by Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Victor Ortiz a major, crowd-pleasing event:

"It's gonna be good. The stuff I'm working on, if I can pull it off, it will be the biggest card we've ever promoted. We're working on some stuff."

And Schaefer says that one idea could be a fight live from Mexico featuring Saul "Canelo" Alvarez:

"I think it would add another element to the telecast and event," Schaefer said. "I would love to find a way to have Canelo on the same night on the same pay-per-view on Mexican Independence Day weekend. It makes a lot of sense. Canelo keeps talking about wanting to fight Mayweather if Mayweather wins, so why not show them together on the same pay-per-view?"

Alvarez was rumored to return on September 17, as it's a traditional huge weekend for Mexican boxing, and it would definitely be something unique to do a split site telecast of this magnitude. What would also make it sort of viable is the fact that nobody will show up in Vegas until the main event anyway, so why not? It's not like you'll bore the crowd there. They'll largely still be gambling.

Now, I wouldn't expect this to happen necessarily, and I also hesitate to expect anything different than the usual from Golden Boy as far as an undercard goes. Last year they told us that the Mosley vs Mora card was great, and this year they told us that the Maidana vs Morales card was great, and while the latter did turn out to be entertaining, that's not because they booked Nobuhiro Ishida to knock the dung out of James Kirkland in two minutes. Basically, they lucked out that time, while the similar on paper Mosley vs Mora card did not turn out as fortunate, and they couldn't go, "We told you so!" they just mostly ducked out and pretended they weren't there.

If I had a vote here, and they did go with an Alvarez co-feature, I think I'd try like hell to book Canelo against Ricardo Mayorga, if Canelo gets past Ryan Rhodes. Mayorga is limited but always makes for entertainment, and I think he could provide real fireworks on that date in Mexico, too. Crowd would be super rabid, and Mayorga isn't expensive.