According to Golden Boy Promotions, lineal middleweight champion Saul Canelo Alvarez will face former middleweight titleholder Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on May 6, during the ever-important Cinco de Mayo boxing weekend, in a 12-round, 164.5-pound catchweight bout.Essentially, its an incredibly important super middleweight contest between two of Mexicos best fighters with far-reaching ramifications.Three cheers for boxing today. They're well deserved.Its the perfect fight at the perfect time for each man, especially Alvarez, who has been heavily criticized for what hes done since becoming the so-called true champion of the 160-pound division.Everyone knows who the best fighter at middleweight likely is right now, and his name is Gennady Golovkin. If there were ever a case for such things as lineal championships being silly and virtually irrelevant, it would be the ever-present absurdity of the middleweight division.As a brief reminder, the last true middleweight fighter to hold the honor of being king of the 160-pounders was either Kelly Pavlik or Sergio Martinez, depending on which side of the aisle you sit upon regarding whether Martinez was a true middleweight.If anything, Martinez was at the very minimum a smallish middleweight champion who defended the championship with honesty and integrity and certainly deserves to be enshrined in the Boxing Hall of Fame.Martinez was a fine middleweight champion.The same hasnt held true for his successors. Miguel Cotto, who was an opportunistic junior middleweight at best, thrashed an old and injured Martinez and subsequently ducked Golovkin just as hard as Alvarez has since he defeated Cotto for the title in 2015.Its easy to see why Alavarez might want to to take his sweet time. Golovkin is a monster, someone considered by some circles, including esteemed boxing writer Thomas Hauser, as already one of the best middleweight fighters ever.That is a bit absurd at this point. Lets get Golovkin in with some real middleweight monsters first. But I digress.Alvarez has made some silly moves since becoming champion. Facing undeserving challenger Amir Khan turned out to be just as dangerous as it seemed when the fight was first announced.And his next bout against Liam Smith was basically pointless. Sure, the win netted him a 154-pound alphabet belt, but since when should the true middleweight champion go after something like a silly sanctioning organizations banner, especially when a noble challenge like Golovkin exists.Or at least fight a middleweight'Maybe the promotional team Oscar De La Hoya employs at Golden Boy finally got a clue. Alvarez doesnt need meaningless trinkets or silly fights against hopeless competition. He needs bouts against proven winners who are middleweight or bigger. Only those things can prepare him for Golovkin.Chavez Jr. is exactly that. He captured the WBC middleweight title belt in 2011 against Sebastian Zbik and defended it well against serious contenders, most notably Marco Antonio Rubio and Andy Lee, before losing a unanimous decision to Martinez in 2012.It was a largely one-sided bout. Martinez was too fast, powerful and slick for the slow-footed and technique-lacking Chavez Jr. to catch clean. But people sometimes forget Chavez Jr. floored Martinez in the final round twice in what was almost became a tremendous accomplishment for a fighter constantly living in the shadow of his all-time great father, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr.Theres not much to say about Canelo-Chavez Jr. other than this: its freaking perfect.Middleweight champion Alvarez will finally face a fighter who will have the physical size and past credentials to prepare him for Golovkin.Alvarez is the better fighter than Chavez Jr. He has better hands, faster feet and more overallskill. But Chavez Jr. can fight mean like a bully, and hes 6'1" and uses a freakish ability to come down in weight to become a monster amongst Smurfs.And the dude can punch. Ask Lee, a heavy hitter himself who easily outboxed Chavez Jr. in 2012 before being baited into a standstill and throw punches affair. Chavez Jr. sliced and diced the brave Irishman like butcher carves up a cow to win by Round 6 stoppage.Both fighters need this fight in a big way. By defeating Chavez Jr., Alvarez will prove he is a legitimate middleweight champion, one who might even posses the skill to shock the world against Golovkin someday.And for Chavez Jr., a win over Alvarez, considered by Bleacher Report to be at least one of the sports ten best fighters and by virtually everyone to be one of its biggest stars, would boost the waning popularity hes suffered since being undressed by Martinez.Alvarez is sometimes picked on by media and fight fans alike for being a bully of sorts. His demolition of paper-thin welterweight Khan didnt help him in this regard, but hes one of boxings best challenge-takers.Here is a fighter who rushed to face boxings greatest fighter of the time period in Floyd Mayweather Jr. and since that decision loss has netted excellent wins over supremely gifted fighters like Erislandy Lara and Miguel Cotto.No one thought he should fight Lara, but he did. Thats something for which he should be commended.Against Chavez Jr., Alvarez will face a naturally larger and proven former champion with real punching power. And while Alvarez will remain lineal middleweight champion by virtue of the over-the-limit contract weight, the bout is still incredibly important to Canelos future.If Alvarez can beat up the bigger, stronger Chavez Jr. the way he has most of his other competition, the idea ofthe middleweight fight fans want to see most becoming a reality or himbeating Golovkin wouldnt seem so far-fetched.Canelo. Chavez Jr. Perfect.
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