Former world light middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will make his return to the ring after his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr on a March 8 card that will feature three world title bouts, promoters said on Friday.
Mexico’s Alvarez, 42-1-1 with 30 knockouts, dropped a majority decision to the unbeaten American in September last year to lose the WBA and WBC crowns.
Alvarez, a 23-year-old whose nickname is Spanish for “cinnamon,” is to face compatriot Alfredo Angulo, 22-3 with 18 knockouts.
Also on the card will be Mexico’s unbeaten Leo Santa Cruz, 27-0 with one draw and 15 knockouts, defending the WBC super bantamweight title against Mexican southpaw and former world champion Cristian Mijares, 49-7 with two drawn and 24 knockouts.
Mexico’s Carlos Molina, 22-5 with two drawn and six knockouts, makes the first defense of his IBF junior middleweight title against unbeaten American Jermall Charlo, 17-0 with 13 knockouts.
Alvarez’s brother Ricardo, 23-2 with three drawn and 14 knockouts, gets into the act when he challenges unbeaten Omar Figueroa, 24-0 with one draw and 17 knockouts, for the WBC interim lightweight crown.
American Adrien Broner won the WBC lightweight title in February last year, but has fought his past two bouts at welterweight and invoked a rematch clause to avenge his first career loss for another fight against Argentina’s Marcos Maidana, which means the interim champion is likely to take over the full title.
Meanwhile, Mayweather says he will fight for the last time in September next year.
Mayweather told guests at a gala dinner in South Africa on Friday that he remembers his first fight when he was a child in 1987, and that “September 2015 will be my last.”
The unbeaten five-division world champion, considered by many the best boxer of his era, said after beating Alvarez in a dominating display in September last year that he had four fights and two years left in his career.
Mayweather’s next bout will be in May against an undecided opponent, having said this week that British fighter Amir Khan and Maidana are the leading contenders.
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