By Miguel Rivera

Centro De Convenciones, Rosarito, Baja California -  Former world champion Antonio Margarito (40-8, 27 KOs) is targeting his Mexican rival, Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (47-1-1, 33KOs).

On Saturday night, Margarito won a ten round split decision over Ramon Alvarez (23-5-2, 15 KOs), the older brother of Canelo, to capture the WBO Continental super welterweight championship. The scores were 95-94 Alvarez, and 97-92, 97-92 for Margarito. 

Canelo was ringside in support of his brother and he also helped his older sibling prepare for the contest.

Canelo is training for a world title fight on September 17th, when he challenges WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

If Canelo wins that fight, he already has a tentative date of December 10th for his next fight. In his post-fight interview, Margarito said he was ready to fight Canelo on that date for the full WBO title.

“I want the big fights - [Miguel] Cotto, Canelo. I don't want a rematch with Ramon. I am ready for big fights. Now I want to beat [Ramon's] brother Saul." Margarito said.

This was Margarito's second fight since breaking his retirement in March, when he won a ten round decision over Jorge Paez Jr. In that contest Margarito was knocked down and seemed to be seriously hurt. He survived that near disaster to pull off the win. Prior to the March bout, Margarito retired in December 2011 after getting stopped in his rematch with Miguel Cotto.

Coming into this contest, Alvarez had not lost in his last 10 outings in the ring, including nine victories, eight of them by knockout, and one no-contest after a head clash. Alvarez prepared hard for this fight with the help of his younger brother, Canelo.

He felt the decision was robbed from him.

“I thought that decision should have gone my way. I want a rematch. Margarito did not win. The knockdown [in the eight] was more of a slip than anything [else]," Ramon said.