By Jose Luis Camarillo, notifight.com

WBO junior middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (48-1-1, 34KOs) has returned to the gym and using his right hand for the first time since suffering an injury in the September knockout victory over undefeated Liam Smith.

Canelo was scheduled to return to the ring in December, but those plans were scrapped when the hand injury occurred. He was only able to fight twice in 2016, with the other victory coming in May with a sixth round knockout of Amir Khan.

Canelo's next fight is going to take place in May 6th, as part of Cinco De Mayo weekend, but the opponent is unknown.

There are ongoing discussions to have a catch-weight bout with fellow Mexican superstar Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. The two sides are negotiating a fight that would take place at 165-pounds, meaning that Canelo would come up by eleven pounds from his current weight.

The two sides appear to be on the same page with the weight, but they are not on the same page when it comes to the money. Chavez Jr. was given an offer of $6 million, which he's yet to accept.

If that fight falls through, then one alternative is WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (27 years and 24-0, 12 KO's).

Last week, Canelo's request was approved to become the mandatory challenger to Saunder's world title. But Saunders is unknown in the United States and Mexico, and that presents a big problem with making a big HBO pay-per-view fight on Cinco De Mayo weekend. Saunders also looked terrible in his last fight on December 3, where he barely beat Artur Akavov in Scotland. 

One darkhorse to Canelo, could be Puerto Rican superstar Miguel Cotto, who returns on HBO PPV on February 25th against James Kirkland. It will be Cotto's first bout since losing a twelve round decision to Canelo in November of 2015. Their pay-per-view generated 900,000 buys and since that time no other boxing event has come close to that number. If Cotto looks spectacular in February, he could become an option for May.