Cotto and Alvarez make weight for Saturday’s middleweight bout

Among the benefits of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s bond with his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, he is getting advice about similar situations the “Golden Boy” experienced in the ring.

Alvarez, a 25-year-old from Mexico, faces a defining match Saturday night against former four-division champion Miguel Cotto, 35, of Puerto Rico. This reminds De La Hoya of his own 1996 test against veteran Julio Cesar Chavez Sr.

“This is a perfect time — where the nerves are at their highest, where there’s anxiety — I saved this talk to tell [Alvarez] about how he’ll have to risk everything,” De La Hoya said.

“Don’t worry about being cautious. Be smart, but don’t be cautious. Go in there and just give a fight. You’re in the business of proving. You can do this against a seasoned, veteran fighter.”

Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 knockouts) weighed in Friday at the catch-weight limit of 155 pounds for the bout, with Cotto at 153.5.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission reported Cotto will earn a guaranteed $15 million for the bout, with Alvarez receiving $5 million, before their share of pay-per-view profits from a bout expected to draw around 1 million buys.

“He’ll do his plan, I’ll do my plan and let’s see who wins. I worked to beat Miguel Cotto, and that’s what I’m going to do,” Alvarez said. “He has a lot of experience, but so do I.

“Now is my time.”

Like Alvarez’s 10-year age gap with Cotto, De La Hoya was 23 when he fought for the World Boxing Council super-lightweight title against the then-33-year-old Chavez.

Chavez had been knocked down only once in his career, and never stopped. He took a 97-1-1 record to the bout, only to get cut badly near the left eye in the first round by the determined De La Hoya, who battered Chavez so badly that the fight was stopped in the fourth round.

De La Hoya sees parallels between his early career and Alvarez’s.

“This kid [Alvarez] is so mature. Every fight he’s had in the past, including [a 2013 loss to Floyd] Mayweather and [tough split-decision triumph over Erislandy] Lara have prepared him for this moment,” De La Hoya said.

He told Alvarez, “There’s no way around walking through the fire. It’s only a temporary pain. Go out there and fight with passion.”

“He understood that,” De La Hoya said. “He’s at ease, in good spirits.”

Alvarez can win the World Boxing Council middleweight belt that Cotto vacated by declining to pay a $300,000 sanctioning fee.

Meanwhile, the 3/1 underdog Cotto (40-4, 33 knockouts) is confident he can out-box Alvarez and inflict damage that will frustrate the younger fighter, like Mayweather did.

In his three fights with six-time trainer of the year Freddie Roach, Cotto has recorded three stoppages. And last year, after Cotto’s middleweight title victory over Sergio Martinez, Cotto told Roach, “My confidence is 100 percent.”

Alvarez is expected to weigh about 170 pounds by fight night, and Roach said, “Our game plan is to take advantage of the weight gain. ‘Canelo’ will be slower.

“Miguel’s fighting much smarter,” Roach said. “The biggest thing about him before was that he’d put his back on the ropes to draw guys in and take a punch. I told him it really wasn’t worth it … we will not go to the ropes in this fight. [Alvarez] might force us there, but we know what to do. … We worked on this every day.”

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