Canelo Alvarez vs. Liam Smith: Fight Date Announced, Comments and Reaction

Saul "Canelo" Alvarez will make his return to the boxing ring September 17 against undefeated British boxer Liam Smith.

Canelo officially announced the matchup Friday, via Boxing Scene:

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I am very pleased to announce my next fight against Liam Smith, a tremendous fighter with real knockout power, and the WBO junior middleweight world title owner. I have no doubt that this fight will be give and take, which will fill the expectations of the fans, and I will work with all the enthusiasm as I always do to get the upper hand on 17 September.

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A venue for the bout has not yet been announced.

Smith said in the same release, "I am delighted to get the opportunity to defend my world title against the biggest name in world boxing and to headline in the U.S., which is a dream I have had since I started in the sport of boxing."

The 27-year-old Smith has a career record of 23-0-1 with 13 knockouts and has been the WBO light middleweight champion since knocking out John Thompson in October 2015.

While Canelo does bring a level of star power few in the world of boxing can match, there is tepid enthusiasm for this particular bout, at least from Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports:

Smith is not regarded as an elite fighter, despite his record and title. ESPN.com's Dan Rafael placed the Liverpool native as the eighth-best junior middleweight in his most recent divisional rankings.

The fight every boxing fan hopes to see is Canelo vs. Gennady Golovkin. The two sides did reportedly verbally agree to square off but not until the fall of 2017, per Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times. Rafael noted the reason for the long delay is so Canelo can get acclimated to the 160-pound weight limit.

That leaves a lot of time for something to happen that could hurt Canelo or Golovkin's drawing power, notably a loss to an inferior fighter.

Smith is not exactly a pushover because he does have knockout power, but Canelo is so quick and smart in the ring that a loss in this spot would be a huge upset. Boxing fans will just have to settle for the warm-up act before getting the showdown they desire.