The deal for junior middleweight titlist Saul "Canelo" Alvarez to make his third defense against former welterweight titleholder Kermit Cintron on Nov. 26 has been finalized, Golden Boy promoter Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com on Tuesday night.
Alvarez and Cintron will meet in the main event of a "Boxing After Dark" split-site tripleheader on HBO, Schaefer said.
"It's finalized. It's a great fight, another dangerous fight for Canelo and another step up for him," Schaefer said.
Schaefer said that the site was not finalized yet, but added that the fight would take place in Mexico, Alvarez's home country, where he is a major star.
"We are working on the venue, either Mexico City or Cancun," Schaefer said.
The other two bouts on the telecast will come from Cincinnati, where hometown fighter Adrien Broner (21-0, 17 KOs) will fight for a vacant junior lightweight belt against an opponent to be determined, likely Argentina's Vicente Rodriguez (34-2-1, 19 KOs), with blue chip featherweight prospect Gary Russell (18-0, 10 KOs), a 2008 U.S. Olympian, opening the show against an opponent to be named.
Alvarez, 21, won a vacant 154-pound belt in March with a shutout decision win against Matthew Hatton. Alvarez followed with a similarly dominant 12th-round knockout of Ryan Rhodes in June. In his second defense, Alvarez had some trouble with Alfonso Gomez, but stopped him in the sixth round on Sept. 17 on the Los Angeles portion of the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Victor Ortiz split-site HBO PPV card.
Despite Cintron's recent uneven performances, the 31-year Houston-based Puerto Rico native is still a step up for Alvarez (38-0-1, 28 KOs). Cintron (33-4-1, 28 KOs) lost back-to-back fights -- to Paul Williams in May 2010 and then to Carlos Molina in July in a major upset -- before outpointing Antwone Smith in August to end his skid.
"There is no question about it that Cintron is a very dangerous guy," Schaefer said. "That's what you need to do with Canelo. He's 21 years young and this is about building up to the bigger names and bigger fights. Canelo is well on his way. I think our matchmakers, Eric (Gomez) and Roberto (Diaz), along with (Golden Boy president) Oscar (De La Hoya), who is closely involved in this, have done a very good job on the matchmaking side. To tell you the truth, I'm a little worried because Cintron is a tough, tough, tough guy and a good puncher."
Dan Rafael is the senior boxing writer for ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter @danrafaelespn.