Ryan Rhodes will have to travel to Alvarez's home town

Sheffield veteran Ryan Rhodes will have to travel to the home town of WBC light-middleweight champion Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez if he is to fulfil his dream of becoming a world champion.

34-year-old Rhodes, who made his professional debut when Alvarez was four, is set to box the 20-year-old champion in Guadalajara on June 18th.

"For me it is so huge, but for my Mexican people it's going to be even bigger," Alvarez told Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. "It was my dream to have my first defence in Mexico and now the dream is reality. I am very happy."

However, in a move which echoes the Sky Sports-Amir Khan saga this week (without the farcical acrimony), the fight will take place on HBO's 'Boxing After Dark' series rather than as a stand-alone PPV.

"After seeing the ratings Canelo had, the highest ['Boxing After Dark'] ratings in like three years, they obviously are very interested to have Canelo back live on the network," said Richard Schaefer of Alvarez's promoters, Golden Boy.

"To have Canelo live on HBO before he does his first pay-per-view is the right approach.

"I've had a lot of people telling me this is a very dangerous fight. I asked (Hall of Fame promoter and matchmaker) Don Chargin about it. He said it's definitely a big test, but he feels it is a test Canelo should be able to pass. I said I don't want to hear 'should be.' I want to hear 'will.' You never know. At this point Canelo needs to have these kinds of tests, and this will be the biggest test of his career.

"They criticize Canelo for fighting smaller guys like Jose Cotto or Matthew Hatton. Now he's actually fighting a bigger guy, a substantially bigger guy, because Ryan Rhodes has fought many middleweight fights," Schaefer said. "He's a big guy, he's a strong guy and it's a real, real test. I told Canelo this is a very tough guy and Canelo looked at me, flexed his muscles and said, 'So am I.' "

"I respect my opponent," said Alvarez. "He is a real opponent. He has fought at middleweight. He's a real, real challenger. I could do an optional defence, but I choose a real opponent. I just want to prove to the people and media that I am capable of dealing with those type of fighters."

Image, of Ryan Rhodes defeating Jamie Moore, courtesy Chris Royle