I don't know whether Saul Alvarez will win or lose his next fight, but Golden Boy has already lost by KO. Three scheduled opponents have come and gone, and with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in jail and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. locked into his own Sept. 15 battle with Sergio Martinez, even the pipe-dream possibilities have dwindled for Canelo.

That's why it seems that fate is pushing Canelo into a fight with Erislandy Lara. There's no other choice, unless you count the rejection of the TV networks as an option. But internal drama at Golden Boy appears to be holding up the show. The trouble, it seems, is that Oscar De La Hoya and his company don't want to risk Canelo's unbeaten status against a fighter from their own stable. Still, it's past the point of ridiculous when, as far as I know, no one has referred to the Cuban fighter as even a Plan B, C or D.

Canelo's remaining "options" read like the chronicle of a catastrophe. De La Hoya horrified everyone when he mentioned Carlos Quintana after Victor Ortiz fell out. And it gets better: Shane Mosley, Kermit Cintron, Carlos Baldomir, Alfonso Gomez, Jose Miguel Cotto. Please! No more calls to the museum when trolling for the young champ's next foe. Canelo must follow the example of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and start fighting the best opposition from his own generation. Taking into account that Miguel Cotto refuses to fight before the end of the year and when you consider the barriers that separate Canelo from a fight with his most natural opponent, Vanes Martirosyan, the only attractive alternative left is Lara.

It would be an even matchup, too. And if we believe the rumblings that the fight will no longer be broadcast on pay-per-view, there should be no objections from networks to promote an alternative show to compete with the Chavez-Martinez PPV scheduled for that same day.

That leads to another point: Why do Top Rank and Golden Boy insist on shooting themselves in the foot by promoting dueling cards? Forget for a moment how damaging their spat is for the sport and just look at it from their self-serving standpoint: Each event will pull viewers and gate revenue away from the other. How does this make sense to anyone? Why not put on a single PPV event featuring both fights? Is it really that difficult to bury the hatchet and smoke the peace pipe to make fans happy and everyone else wealthy?

I understand that Golden Boy is facing a crossroads. De La Hoya and his people have to think long and hard about putting their showcase fighter in with the best men in his division. But Quintana isn't the solution. Neither is Austin Trout, who would be there merely as a stop-gap -- and Ortiz has already proven that bad things can happen even when a less-than-deserving opponent is brought in to fill in for a legitimate contender. For all these reasons and more, I insist: All roads should lead to Lara.