Canelo Alvarez Headed to PPV on September 15, James Kirkland Is Possible Opponent

Canelo Alvarez will headline his own pay-per-view event from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on September 15, and BoxingScene.com reports that James Kirkland has been floated as a potential opponent for the date.

Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KO) took home a dominant win over Shane Mosley this past weekend, on what was his third and perhaps final Mayweather undercard. The 21-year-old Mexican superstar still has his doubters, and whether you're a Canelo fan or not, I do think we can all agree that now it's time to step him up against someone who is if not his own age (there aren't many 21-year-old contenders out there), then not so much older, not undersized, or not clearly freefalling from relevance.

Alvarez has cut a solid schedule for someone his age, but he's clearly positioned as a star fighter and is one of the best in the world at his weight. It's time for him to face other legitimate contenders.

Kirkland (31-1, 27 KO) fits the bill, despite a rocky performance against Carlos Molina in March, where he got a controversial victory due to some highly questionable officiating.

The 28-year-old Texan is without question a flawed fighter, but truthfully there aren't any fighters at 154 without serious flaws, and given that Kirkland is Golden Boy-promoted, it's an easy, credible fight to make for everyone involved, and the other bonus is that it could be a hell of a good fight if everything broke right.

My early gut feeling about the fight if it happens is that Canelo's accuracy and patience will be a lot for Kirkland and his lousy defense to handle. Molina hit him clean constantly, and Alvarez has much heavier hands than Molina, plus even if it was fluky (which I feel it was), we've seen what sharp, accurate punches can do to Kirkland from his loss to Nobuhiro Ishida, another feather-fisted fighter.

For now, it's just early (very early) talk, but it's nice to hear it being considered at any rate. If they're going to put him on PPV, they pretty much have to go up in class.