More to life than ‘Money’ for Alvarez

From the moment he left the ring, Canelo Alvarez has had to explain the beat-down he took from Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Sept. 14.

He has been asked the same questions dozens of times:

“Has he put the loss behind him?”

“Why didn’t he have a better game plan for Mayweather?”

“How is his psyche?”

“How will he fight going forward after finally losing?”

Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 knockouts) can change the narrative tonight by beating Alfredo Angulo (22-3, 18 KOs) in the 12-round main event at the MGM Grand Garden, the same place Alvarez suffered his only defeat and lost the World Boxing Council junior middleweight championship. The fight will be televised on Showtime Pay Per View.

“I’m happy to be back fighting,” Alvarez said. “The most important thing for this camp was I was relaxed. I was excited to be back in the ring.”

Alvarez’s answers and general demeanor back up his claim that he is relaxed. Leading up to the Mayweather fight, there was a certain uptightness when Alvarez was interviewed, almost to the point that he seemed agitated.

Perhaps the opponent had something to do with it. But this time around, Alvarez is comfortable and genuinely confident that he will get his career back on track.

Angulo’s straight-ahead style seems tailor-made for Alvarez, who has great boxing skills to go with power and speed, traits that simply were no match for Mayweather’s skill set. But Alvarez knows he must be prepared to slug it out at times tonight.

“We know what Angulo brings,” he said. “It’s a different fight than the last fight. We have a game plan for Angulo, but sometimes plans go out the window once the fight begins. He can change a fight with one punch. But we’re ready for the pressure he’s going to bring.”

There’s no title at stake, and the contracted weight officially became 155 pounds after being renegotiated Friday with Golden Boy Promotions, which handles both fighters. Alvarez was struggling to make the junior middleweight limit of 154 pounds and agreed to pay Angulo $100,000 to increase it by 1 pound.

Alvarez, whose purse is $1.25 million, then weighed in at 155. Angulo, who will make $750,000, came in at 154½.

The weight issue didn’t affect the betting odds. Alvarez is a minus-700 favorite at the MGM Resorts race and sports book, with Angulo at plus-450.

Alvarez will be fighting for the first time in three years without a belt to defend. But he figures if he wins tonight he’ll probably get a title shot this year.

But should he lose to Angulo, the path to a title will get a lot rockier. Alvarez said earlier this year he planned to fight three times in 2014. Now, he’s hedging that a bit.

“In boxing, anything can change,” he said. “It could be three (fights). It could be two. Let’s see how this fight goes.”

Alvarez knows the loss to Mayweather will remain a permanent part of his legacy. But he would love to stop the seemingly endless line of questioning that stems from one bad night.

“It’s in the past, but it’s always going to be part of me,” Alvarez said. “It was a big event, so I’m not afraid to talk about it. You always have to learn and improve. You’re going to make mistakes. But it’s important to learn from those mistakes.

“The greatest of all time, Muhammad Ali, he lost, and he came back.”

Three world title fights originally were scheduled for the undercard, but it’s down to one. Leo Santa Cruz will defend his WBC super bantamweight belt against Cristian Mijares.

WBC interim lightweight champion Omar Figueroa pulled out of his title defense against Ricardo Alvarez last week after injuring his left hand in training. And Carlos Molina’s International Boxing Federation junior middleweight title defense against Jermall Charlo was canceled Friday because Molina still was in jail after his arrest Tuesday for an outstanding warrant and subsequent immigration issues.

■ NOTES — The first bell for the undercard is scheduled for 6 p.m. … Tony Weeks will referee the Alvarez-Angulo fight, and Jerry Roth, Dave Moretti and Craig Metcalfe will be the judges.

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.