Saul "Canelo" Alvarez On Next Fight: Alfredo Angulo Was Best Option For March 8, Confident About PPV Numbers

Saul "Canelo" Alvarez will look to bounce back from his first loss when he makes his return to the ring against Alfredo Angulo on March 8 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Alvarez, who is coming off a majority decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September last year, considered several options before eventually deciding to face his 31-year-old countryman.

Fight fans were surprised with Canelo's decision to face Angulo, who is coming off a technical knockout loss to Erislandy Lara and has an unimpressive record of 22-3 in 25 fights.

But Alvarez insisted that Angulo was the best option for his March return, saying that the Mexican veteran is ready to stand toe-to-toe against him to give an exciting fight to the fans.

"People wants to see excitement. They want action. They don't want to see running. I decided to fight him because he is a very strong fighter; he was the best option to fight. Obviously I wanted to come back with a high level fight," Alvarez said in an interview with BoxingScene.

The 23-year-old Mexican, who holds an impressive 42-1-1 record with 30 knockouts, also considered Lara, the interim WBA interim light middleweight champion, and IBF titlist Carlos Molina.

Previous reports also indicated the Miguel Cotto was offered $10 million to face Alvarez, but the former Puerto Rican champion turned down the fight, and focused on negotiating a fight with Sergio Martinez instead.

A showdown between Alvarez and Cotto would have been a more appealing showdown to fight fans.

Understandably, the Alvarez vs. Angulo showdown is not expected to surpass or even get closer to what Canelo earned from his previous bout, but the flamboyant Mexican is confident that his upcoming fight against Angulo will also do good numbers.

"I have loyal fans and I'm very grateful for that. And they're always going to be with me. And I feel that they're going to support me through thick and thin and they're going to follow me in this pay-per-view," Alvarez said.

Alvarez's previous fight against Mayweather recorded the second all-time highest amount of pay-per-view buys at 2.2 million subscriptions, while also setting a record-breaking $150-million PPV revenue.