By Jose Luis Camarillo, notifight.com

GUADALAJARA, Jal - On Saturday night, Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (37-0, 27KOs) was the happiest man in the arena after scoring a twelfth round knockout over a stubborn Ryan Rhodes to retain his WBC junior middleweight championship for the first time. Rhodes was the mandatory challenger appointed by the World Boxing Council.

"I've always said, my opponent was difficult. I am grateful to my people who came to support me. Ryan is strong, and he endured a lot of punishment. I am very happy with what I did. I showed a lot of good stuff and I closed [the fight] by knocking Rhodes out. The public says that I need to learn more, and I thank them for the boost. I'm happy with my performance. I'm learning slowly," Alvarez said. 

"No doubt Ryan was demanding, but I didn't let him make his fight and I beat him round by round. I've always said that when I climb into the ring I'm not looking for a knockout, but if the opportunity arises I'll go for it. I climb into the ring to do my job."

Alvarez is going to return to the ring in September. The tentative date was September 17th, but now Floyd Mayweather Jr. will return on that date against WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz. There have been discussions about the possibility of combining Alvarez's next fight with the Mayweather-Ortiz pay-per-view. The idea would have Alvarez headline a separate event, and showcased by the pay-per-view outlets in a split-feed manner. 

"Whatever comes next, I have to talk to my promoter to see what's going to follow. I stand by what I previously said - I want a big fight this year. My next fight is going to be in September," Alvarez said.