Canelo Alvarez inks deal with Tecate as his American crossover push continues

Golden Boy continues to push Canelo Alvarez's crossover appeal to a mainstream American audience as the fighter has just signed a deal with Mexican beer giant Tecate to be the spokesman for their new "Born Bold" campaign, aimed at an English-speaking audience for the first time.

"Tecate is a world recognized company and I am very happy to have a strong and serious sponsor be part of my team," said Alvarez, who will dress in sponsor-branded trunks for his bouts. "Through our partnership we will be able to achieve our mutual goals and lead boxing into its next great era."

This is also the first time that Tecate has signed endorsement deal with an individual fighter, as they usually sponsor major individual fights. Tecate additionally announced that they've signed a deal with Golden Boy promotions to be their chief sponsor in a multi-year deal.

So for as popular as the red-headed Mexican already is, promoter Oscar De La Hoya knows that for Canelo to get to the next level he'll need to connect with an English-speaking market, with Canelo continuing to work on the language. Essentially, Oscar is trying to get Canelo to follow his blueprint from when he was an international boxing star -- a bilingual powerhouse who was able to connect with audiences across language barriers.

"This is Canelo's coming out party. Canelo now has the opportunity to become that next exciting pay-per-view king and Tecate will definitely help with his popularity here in the United States," De La Hoya told ESPN.com. "When you connect with the American consumer its like you've made it."

De La Hoya goes on to say that Canelo understands the importance of speaking English but has been a little shy about doing it publicly because he likes to do everything perfect. But De La Hoya says that Canelo doesn't need to be perfect, and that people will respect him for just making the effort.

Gennady Golovkin would be a perfect example of this, as his charmingly broken English has accounted for a number of quotables and endeared him to so many English-speaking fans across the country. In fact, as his English continues to improve, I find it becoming even less endearing than it was before -- but that's a story for another day.

So with so much time and money invested in Canelo, and with Canelo increasingly becoming the center of big business outside of the ring, you can be sure that Golden Boy will move him very meticulously in his boxing career, raising even more doubts if he'll actually face an opponent as dangerous as Golovkin any time soon. A number of boxing insiders certainly don't believe so...