Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya, who won 10 world titles in six weight classes after claiming 1992 Olympic gold at age 19 in Barcelona, believes in "daring to be great" and said Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, 25-years-old, faces a pivotal opportunity on Nov. 21 against Miguel Cotto.

Alvarez, with power in both hands and a 45-1-1 record with 32 knockouts, is taking on Puerto Rico's Cotto (40-4, 33 knockouts) for the WBC world middleweight title in Las Vegas.

"Right now, the 'next guy' is Canelo," De La Hoya told Reuters about the new wave to follow the likes of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao as boxing's headline stars.

"November 21 is so important. If he wins in spectacular fashion, we have the next superstar in boxing. It’s a great launching pad."

De La Hoya sees something of himself in Alvarez, whose only career loss came in a 2013 majority decision against Mayweather.

De La Hoya said Alvarez was not ready to beat the defensive wizard but the boxer wanted the match, wanted to test himself and had no regrets despite losing his WBC and WBA super welterweight titles.

The promoter knows Cotto could emerge victorious, but that does not stop him from dreaming big about a clash against Kazakhstan knockout artist Gennady Golovkin, who holds the WBA/IBO/IBF world titles and stands as the mandatory challenger to Cotto's WBC belt.

De La Hoya believes that boxing thrives when the best take on the best and said he could see Alvarez in a championship slugfest against Golovkin (34-0, 31KOs) within a year or 18 months.

"It’s interesting to see how long we’re going to take to build, the need for it to marinate just a bit," he said. "I like my meat medium-rare. I’m not a guy who likes to overcook my meat.

"In the meantime, Triple G is now fighting with tough guys, Canelo is fighting with tough guys. They might lose, they might win. That’s the risk we have to take. The vision, the game plan, is to have them meet, sooner than later.

"It will be like two Mack trucks colliding. It will be the next super fight for the sport of boxing."