The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of February 5

It's been a slow week in boxing, but that doesn't mean we have nothing to talk about.

Canelo Alvarez's huge all-Mexican showdown with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has a landing site.

We'll take a look at whether the decision to place the fight in Las Vegas instead of the Dallas area is a good one or a mistake.

Miguel Cotto's scheduled pay-per-view date with James Kirkland is off.

The question is (without sounding too harsh), Will anyone really care?

And what will come next for the future Hall of Famer as his career winds down?

All that, plus, Artur Beterbiev's challenging next fight, the latest on Joseph Parker's title defense against Hughie Fury and the next installment of Premier Boxing Champions on Bounce TV.

These are the hottest boxing storylines for the week!

Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. has a home.

The all-Mexican showdown will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on May 6 on HBO PPV, per Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. That's somewhat surprising given the interest of Jerry Jones, who hosted Canelo's knockout win over Liam Smith last fall at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and was hoping to land this fight as well. 

Golden Boy Promotions reportedly received a better deal from the ownership group of the T-Mobile Arena and elected to take it and the fight to Las Vegas. 

The deal must've been pretty sweet to turn down the potential exposure that would've come with hosting a significant event (if not a spectacular fight) at a football stadium in an area that would've likely drawn a huge number of fans of both fighters.

Canelo and Chavez will meet at a catchweight of 164 pounds in a fight that figures to draw plenty of mainstream attention. The site was the only remaining piece of the puzzle for a bout between Mexico's biggest star and the son of its greatest all-time fighter.

Granted, we don't know the specifics of the deal (and the financials), but we're not sure about this decision.

There is the obvious allure of a Vegas fight (with all it entails), but Texas looks from the outside to have more potential as a venue for this specific contest, given the two men involved.

Cotto's ill-fated PPV return against Kirkland has hit an iceberg and sunk.

Mitch Abramson of The Ring reports that the entire card was scrapped when Kirkland broke his nose in training and was forced to withdraw from the fight. This might be the ideal outcome for everyone involved, except for the fighters themselves.

Cotto-Kirkland was absolutely not a PPV fight.

It might have been a fun fight on regular network HBO, but the idea that people were going to fork over cash to watch it was laughable from the minute it was announced. 

Cotto hasn't fought since dropping a November 2015 decision and his middleweight title to Canelo Alvarez. That bout wasn't particularly exciting to watch, and his protests notwithstanding, the verdict was clear and correct. 

Kirkland has been out of the ring even longer.

He hasn't fought since May 2015 when he suffered a devastating knockout loss to Canelo. 

The loss was brutal and ugly.

Nobody is shedding any tears over the loss of this one, save, perhaps, for the fighters.

We don't yet know what the next move is for the Puerto Rican star. He hoped to remain active in 2017 before calling it quits on a career that will land him in the Hall of Fame.

Miguel Rivera of Boxing Scene reports that Cotto will not call it quits yet and still plans to fight two more times.

Most guys with 11 professional fights are prospects.

Beterbiev isn't most guys.

He's not just a genuine light heavyweight contender but might well be the greatest threat to the two biggest dogs (Andre Ward and Sergev Kovalev, two consensus top-five pound-for-pound fighters) in the yard.

The Russian already holds wins over a pair of former world champions and will now face possibly his toughest challenger to date when he battles Sullivan Barrera in a title eliminator, per Rafael.

The fight will likely take place in March or April in New York City in order to maximize exposure. 

Beterbiev has knocked out every opponent he's faced in the pros and holds an amateur win over Kovalev. He was forced to sit out half of last year after shoulder surgery and has two wins over nondescript foes since his return.

Barrera rebounded well from a lopsided loss to Ward with an impressive seventh-round knockout of Vyacheslav Shabranskyy last December. That win got him back on track after Ward had completely outclassed him in his previous fight.

The winner of this bout will be the mandatory challenger for Ward's IBF Light Heavyweight Championship.

Parker, who took the vacant WBO Heavyweight Championship against Andy Ruiz Jr. in a close fight last December, will make his first defense against Hughie Fury on April 1 in his native New Zealand, per Rafael. 

Fury is the younger cousin of former undisputed heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. 

Parker has frequently been mentioned alongside Anthony Joshua as one of the two brightest young stars in the heavyweight division. He struggled at times against the awkward Ruiz but did enough to close the show in a fight that wound up being close on the scorecards.

The younger Fury is a big man like his cousin, but he hasn't been really tested yet on this level and will enter as an underdog who is fighting far away from home. 

He scored the biggest win of his career (a technical decision over rugged Fred Kassi) in his last bout in April.

Both men have a lot on the line here.

The winner will push forward with a potentially lucrative unification bout with one of the other champions, plus each man has added motivation of his own.

Parker will try to recapture some of the momentum he lost by looking pedestrian against Ruiz, and Fury will seek to regain one of the world titles that his cousin lost to personal problems out of the ring.

Two young champions in the PBC stable will make their first title defenses Friday night on a card televised by Bounce TV.

In the main event, Robert Easter Jr. defends his IBF Lightweight Championship against Luis Cruz, while in the co-feature, WBA bantamweight champion Rau'shee Warren defends against mandatory challenger Zhanat Zhakiyanov.

Neither of these fights figures to be competitive.

Easter is a solid fighter who claimed a vacant title by pounding out a tough decision over the rugged Richard Commey his last time out in September. Cruz doesn't appear to be anywhere near his level (he's fought sporadically of late and is 1-2-1 in his last four bouts), and this looks like a stay-busy fight.

Warren scored a measure of revenge against Juan Carlos Payano to lift his belt in a rematch last June.

Zhakiyanov has never fought in the United States and doesn't hold a single win over an opponent of note. That is probably why the WBA found him worthy of a world title shot. 

Both of these fights look like showcases, and that's fine, but we hope both favorites get serious challenges soon.