Alvarez – Angulo on for March 8th

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will take on Alfredo Anguko on March 8th in and will be televised via Showtime Pay Per View.

“The fight is done. Signed, sealed and delivered,” said Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer. “Both guys are excited and ready to put on a show. These are two Mexican warriors and two of the most exciting fighters in the sport and it will be a toe-to- toe battle. That is what we are calling the card, ‘Toe to Toe.'”

“Canelo is a huge star, so going on pay-per-view was not an issue,” Schaefer said. “You see it when he goes somewhere in Los Angeles or Mexico. He has that charisma where people are drawn to him. I saw that in San Antonio in December when he came to the (Marcos Maidana- card). The ovation he got was crazy. People embrace him. The fans go nuts, the females love him. You win some and you lose some. He had his first loss against Mayweather, the best fighter in the world, and there is no shame in that.

“But just because you lose to Floyd doesn’t mean you lose. He’s been exposed to so many people because of it, and that increased exposure is a good thing for Canelo and his career.

“His eye is fine. He was cleared about six weeks after the fight with Lara and he didn’t need surgery,” Michael Miller, Angulo’s manager, said. “He’s very excited and he’s looking forward to fighting Canelo. People know they’re going to get a helluva show no matter who wins. Nobody will be a loser that night because it’s going to be a memorable fight I believe.

“Angulo is going to hit Canelo and we’ll see what he can do when he gets by a big puncher.”

If Schaefer get the deal done, junior featherweight titlist Leo Santa Cruz (26-0-1, 15 KOs) would defend his belt in a mandatory defense against former two-time junior bantamweight titleholder and Mexican countryman Cristian Mijares.(49-7-2, 24 KOs), who has won two fights in a row since losing a split decision to Victor Terrazas for a vacant title in April. Santa Cruz then knocked out Terrazas in the third round in his first defense to win the title on Aug. 24.

Schaefer is also hoping to finalize a pair of bouts. In one fight, interim titlist Omar Figueroa (22-0-1, 17 KOs) would make his first defense against Ricardo Alvarez (23-2-3, 14 KOs), Canelo’s older brother.

Figueroa won the vacant interim belt in July by outpointing Nihito Arakawa (24-3-1, 16 KOs) in a savage fight of the year candidate and has not fought since. Neither has Japan’s Arawaka, who would return to face former junior lightweight and featherweight titlist (35-3, 23 KOs) — a Venezuelan who lives in Japan — in the opener of the pay-per- view.

“When they have these infomercials on TV and you are ready to dial the phone and buy the product, I want this card to be an infomercial for the sport of ,” Schaefer said. “You announce the main and people get excited. But you say, ‘But wait, there’s more.’ I don’t have all three of these fights done yet, but I am working to get them done.

“It’s one of those cards where you can be proud of putting it on because you know when people turn on the TV you know they are going to be entertained.”