LAS VEGAS – As he walked off his ceremonial weigh-in stage, that spark in Canelo Alvarez’s eyes and his eagerness to talk mirrored the response he likely provided hours earlier when a waiter asked the famished fighter, “Can I take your order?”

This time, the question was, “How much will it mean to you to get a knockout” of Saturday night opponent Jaime Munguia?

Mexico’s Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KOs) said he craves it.

Not just because he hasn’t had one in four fights.

Not just because it’s Cinco de Mayo weekend.

Not just because it would be his landmark 40th KO.

And not just because he feels such vitriol for his former promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, who now promotes Munguia (43-0, 34 KOs) and who wore a T-shirt to the weigh-in reading “Eat More Meat,” a jab at Alvarez’s 2018 positive clenbuterol test result that Alvarez said came from eating tainted Mexican beef.

“Canelo has a bit more of a chip on his shoulder because it’s Oscar’s fighter and it’s a bit more personal with more ramifications for him,” Paulie Malignaggi said on Friday’s episode of ProBox TV’s “Deep Waters.”

“He’s going to have a little more spice to him.”

At 33, undisputed super middleweight champion Alvarez has heard the talk that age and the toll of 484 professional rounds has contributed to his knockout slump.

He also knows he’ll have a ringside visitor in unbeaten super middleweight champion David Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs).

Benavidez’s interest in invoking his mandatory status to seek Alvarez’s WBC belt just heightened by Friday’s news that three-belt light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev has suffered a torn knee meniscus, postponing his planned June 1 undisputed bout against WBA champion Dmitry Bivol until at least the close of the year.

Benavidez has a June 15 light heavyweight bout in Las Vegas against former champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk, and he’ll have one week afterward to decide whether to continue his pursuit of Alvarez or instead go after the light heavyweight straps.

All Alvarez can control is how he fares Saturday night, and given some defensive vulnerabilities that the offensive-minded Munguia has showed in the past – his 2023 bout against Sergiy Derevyanchenko was the bout of the year due to its toe-to-toe action – Malignaggi feels precise power puncher Alvarez will have his chances.

“Munguia gives you the openings to look for the knockout,” Malignaggi said. “It makes the fight more exciting.”

On Friday’s “Deep Waters,” former welterweight champion Malignaggi and former 140-pound champion Chris Algieri were joined by guest John Ryder, who took Alvarez the distance last Cinco de Mayo weekend in Mexico and then succumbed to a ninth-round TKO to Munguia in January.

“I couldn’t stand in there with Canelo,” Ryder said. “It was tough up close [following a knockdown during the first half of the bout] and I had to resort to boxing a bit more at distance.”

Ryder called Munguia “big, physical, strong … the naturally stronger man.

“He was physical; the punches in bunches and the snap in the shot was hard to deal with.”

Neither man has touched the canvas in his career.

As a -550 betting favorite in the bout, Alvarez is +130 (bet $100 to win $130) to knock down Munguia at least once in the fight, and it’s +145 that the bout will not go the distance.

To have witnessed Alvarez’s enthusiasm for a signature finish is to know there are some wagers that are just too difficult to resist.