Alvarez vs. Trout

The Lead Up to Fight Night

Canelo loosely translated means cinnamon in Spanish and is the moniker of red headed Saul Alvarez the WBA & WBC Junior Middleweight Champion (154 lbs.). Cinnamon was once more valuable than gold as a trading spice. After drawing more that 38,000 fight fans and media members to his successful championship unification bout against Austin "No Doubt" Trout at the Alamodome in San Antonio April 20, 2013 cinnamon is once again more valuable than gold. One only needs to ask his promoter Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya.

With the blinding speed De La Hoya once displayed inside the ring Golden Boy Productions (GBP) stormed through Texas in the six weeks leading up to the fight. In what could be a text book example of how to stage a successful fight card GBP delivered the goods to the fight paying public. While the event was huge by boxing standards it was second to the 131,000 fans who assembled the same weekend outside of Austin to witness the Red Bull MotoGP of the Americas.

The first major move GBP made was to get a local promotional deal with Leija-Battah Promotions, a partnership between former two time world champion Jesse James Leija and businessman Mike Battah by pushing the major portion of the financial risk onto their shoulders. By sharing the financial risk the national promoter Leija-Battah earned the right to participate in the financial rewards. And along the way they enhanced their own brand immensely.

But GBP had more demands, de LaHoya is nothing if not shrewd as they also put a televised fight card in Corpus Christi featuring the return of former world champion Juan "Baby Bull" Diaz into Leija-Battah’s hands. Leija-Battah looked at it as both a challenge and an opportunity to become a regional force in boxing.

San Antonio’s Alamodome was the site of the first of three press conferences of a Texas Tour followed by Houston then the Rio Grande Valley. At each stop the participants were mobbed by fans holding iPhones their arms outstretched in kind of a new age salute. This phenomena would be repeated on fight night when thousands would hold them aloft hoping for a snapshot.

When fight week arrived, and the fight card in Corpus Christi finished, the seemingly endless stream of emails, text messages, Tweets and Facebook postings promoting the fight began.

While Alvarez was arriving via a private jet with De La Hoya, Trout was working out at a converted strip club on San Antonio’s south side. Just a few doors away from Ric Morones’s gym a store clerk lost his life five days before the fight in an apparent hold up.

To create buzz Leija-Battah erected both a boxing ring and a DJ booth about 150 feet directly in front of the Alamo. As hundreds of fight fans milled about awaiting the arrival of Trout and Alvarez television cameras from local and Mexican news outlets prowled about. Dozens of photographers staked out ringside spots to capture the action. Fans lined the barricades armed with Sharpies for autographs. Inside the barricades seasoned media members acted like star struck teenagers. If there is to be any criticism of this otherwise excellent public event it would be the DJ playing a popular song by Drake that had the F and N words repeatedly beeped out but still decipherable.

The public demonstration included Leija jumping in the ring and working the mitts for Raul Martinez a local fighter who once fought and lost to Nonito Donaire for the title. Afterwards the undefeated Trout shadow boxed and worked the mitts before obliging the fans by posing photographs and signing autographs. Another of Texas’s undefeated fighters, Omar Figeroa climbed in as did a giddy GBP employee waving the Mexican flag as if to signal the return of Santa Anna.

The event had time limit and when Alvarez arrived the time to end the event was nearing so he posed with De La Hoya and the mariachis who heralded his arrival. For being just 23 years of age Alvarez projects a persona that is unfazed by all of the attention. In public he was courteous, as was Trout, to everyone he made contact with.

At Friday’s weigh in Jesse James Leija looked out at the crowd at Market Square where all he could see was a sea of people. In a moment of unbridled joy he wrapped his arms around his partner Mike Battah. The fans gathered in the hot Texas sun to catch a glimpse of both Alvarez and Trout but mostly Alvarez. Though born in Texas Trout was both the under dog and on the Mexico born and raised Alvarez’s turf.

The crowd cheered everything including Featherweight Raul Martinez who ate a deep fried meat filled gordita while still on the scale operated by Greg Alvarez of the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Mayor Julian Castro stopped by with his brother Joaquin, the U.S. Congressman. Showtime’s Jimmy Lennon, Jr. called out the fighter’s one by one. The Mariachi dressed Sugar Skull posed for plenty of photographs. Scantily clad women danced and gyrated to the DJ. Thousands of fans screamed at the top of their lungs to try and get their favorite fighter to look their way. All in all it was pretty much the biggest most memorable weigh in San Antonio has ever seen. Cinnamon is once again more valuable than gold.

Copyright 2013 Joseph J. Calvey, Sr. All rights reserved. This article may not be reproduced in whole or part without the written permission of the author.