SAN ANTONIO – At the corner of San Saba and Commerce Streets, in the middle of whose closed intersection the weighin for “Canelo Vs. Trout” was held, an enormous screenprint of Saul Alvarez stood beneath a signpost on which flew a promotional banner for a local art museum’s exhibition, one called “Real / Surreal.” An appropriate touch, that, as it is exactly the question about Alvarado aficionados will have answered in Saturday’s main event.
Friday afternoon under a bright sun, in the confines of an otherwise unseasonably pleasant outdoor plaza in this city’s Market Square quadrant, at an event attended by the Mayor, his U.S. Congressman brother, and copromoters and formal rivals Oscar De La Hoya and Jesse James Leija, Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KOs) and American Austin “No Doubt” Trout (26-0, 14 KOs) made weight for their Saturday junior middleweight title-unification match.
Alvarez, his skin powder white with fire-brick freckles, made 153 1/2. Trout, much darker complected, his chest and shoulders tattooed in gray art and script, made 153 1/4. Both appeared in excellent fighting trim, with Trout the talller man.
Every ticket for Saturday’s contest has been sold for a week at least. Promoters announced a crowd of about 40,000 is expected at Alamodome. What has been dubbed “Canelo Mania” has Alamo City in its trance, as a barely proven 22-year-old Mexican with features so red, Irish really, he is called “Cinnamon,” has sold more tickets to a domestic boxing event than anyone since Manny Pacquiao at Cowboys Stadium in 2010, despite facing much lesser opposition.
That will change Saturday. In Austin Trout, Alvarez will find himself matched with an undefeated 27 year-old prizefigher every bit as good as he is, likely better. Trout decisioned Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto in December, and Alvarez has yet to accomplish anything that merits comparison with Cotto’s achievements. Alvarez, though, has a youthful vigor Cotto had beaten out of him by Mexican Antonio Margarito and the aforementioned Pacquiao years before he met Trout.
Alvarez is the ticket-selling favorite in this historic, once-Spanish, once-Mexican city. But Trout is accustomed to fighting before unfriendly crowds, having beaten Cotto in Madison Square Garden, Mexican David Lopez in Mexico, and Alvarez’s brother Rigoberto in La Familia Alvarez’s home state of Jalisco. Both men exhude graciousness and poise, though Alvarez’s poise is more easily understood and come-by given the adoration shown him wherever he goes. Trout is unlikely to be undone by Saturday’s large, partisan-Mexican crowd.
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Doors will open at Alamodome at 4:00 PM local time. As a Fiesta carnival occupies Alamodome’s parking lot, no parking will be available at Alamodome for Saturday’s match. This city’s VIA Metropolitan Transit will run busses from five park-and-ride spots, and ticketholders are encouraged to visit the VIA website for more details.
15rounds.com will have full ringside coverage.
