Canelo Alvarez fractured right thumb, won't fight in December

Canelo's last planned outing for the year has been nixed after he's been found to have an avulsion fracture to his right thumb the LA Times reports. Canelo stopped Liam Smith in nine rounds over the weekend but injured his hand in the second - which really didn't do all that much to slow him down in the fight.

So Canelo was able to walk away with the WBO junior middleweight title but not a clean bill of health, which will put the kibosh on his planned December return. Promoter Oscar De La Hoya had been considering opponents such Billy Joe Saunders, David Lemieux, and Curtis Stevens for the December date, but now Canelo will sit out until 2017.

"Canelo does not need surgery and the prognosis is excellent," a Golden Boy Promotions spokesman wrote in a statement released Monday.

"Canelo's hand will be immobilized for the next six weeks, and he will be unable to fight again in 2016. This does nothing to Canelo's plans to move up and take on the best in the middleweight division next year."

Golden Boy president Eric Gomez said the promotional company will let Canelo decide if he wants to return at the top of the year or just rest up until Cinco de Mayo weekend which is traditionally a prized boxing date. Either way Golden Boy says Canelo will take on Gennady Golovkin a year from now...