HBO boxing analyst Harold Lederman is expecting an exciting showdown between Miguel Cotto and Saul Alvarez in their upcoming fight, but he believes "Canelo" will emerge victorious.

Lederman, who also works as HBO's unofficial boxing judge, said that he thinks the fight will definitely happen. Like most analysts, he is expecting fireworks, but he thinks Alvarez is the better fighter because he is stronger and younger than Cotto.

"Cotto will definitely fight Canelo next," Lederman told BoxingScene. "I think it'll be a hell of a fight. Canelo is probably the favorite but I think Cotto will be competitive. Canelo's a hell of a fighter. He's 24 years old, and a strong kid."

Alvarez, who has an impressive 45-1-1 record with 32 knockout victories, is coming off a third-round knockout victory against James Kirkland in their non-title fight last month in Houston. It was Canelo's third-straight victory since absorbing the lone defeat of his career against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2013.

On the other hand, Cotto scored an impressive win in his first defense of his World Boxing Council middleweight title. The 34-year-old Puerto Rican, who holds a 44-4 record with 33 knockout wins, stopped Daniel Geale in the fourth round of their title showdown earlier this month at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Alvarez and Cotto were also linked to a fight earlier this year, but negotiations went down. Following the victories of both fighters, the camps of the two boxing superstars confirmed that they will sit down again to discuss the fight.

According to reports, the fight will likely happen on Nov. 21 or Nov. 28 and will be shown live via HBO Pay-Per-View. The venue is still not yet set in stone as the two camps are considering New York, Texas and Las Vegas for the highly anticipated showdown.

The winner of the Cotto-Alvarez fight will have to defend the WBC middleweight title against mandatory challenger Gennady Golovkin, who is also the reigning World Boxing Association and International Boxing Organization middleweight champion.

When asked to give his take on the possible Cotto-Golovkin and Alvarez-Golovkin fight, Lederman believes both Cotto and Alvarez will have a hard time winning against the 33-year-old Kazakh, who holds a perfect 33-0 record with 30 knockout victories under his belt.

"GGG is great against anybody," Lederman said of Golovkin, who has knocked out his last 20 opponents. "I don't think either Cotto or Canelo have a shot at 160 against Golovkin."

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