By Ryan Maquiñana

Multiple sources close to the situation have advised BoxingScene.com that three names have emerged as candidates to fight Mexican junior middleweight star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on May 5 in Las Vegas—“Sugar” Shane Mosley, Delvin Rodriguez, and Gabriel “King” Rosado.

The fight would take place on the undercard of Miguel Cotto’s clash with Floyd Mayweather at the MGM Grand, and will likely be the co-feature.

Of the trio in question, Mosley and Rodriguez have been the most heavily considered by the Golden Boy brass, but Rosado’s name has recently received a “push” and “cannot be counted out yet,” according to one of the sources.

It has been widely speculated that Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KOs), a former Golden Boy partner and current promotional free agent, is the front-runner to land the fight. While the 40-year-old former three-division champ would provide the biggest name on Alvarez’ résumé to date, the native of Pomona, Calif., has turned in two subpar performances in a draw against Sergio Mora and a lopsided decision loss to pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao last May.

Meanwhile, Rodriguez (26-5-3, 14 KOs) is coming off a December points triumph over Pawel Wolak in a rematch of their thrilling draw that was voted Fight of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America. Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing promotes the 31-year-old Dominican out of Danbury, Conn.

Rosado (19-5, 11 KOs), who fights under the Russell Peltz Promotions banner in his hometown of Philadelphia, delivered an entertaining yet dominant performance in a fifth-round stoppage of Jesus Soto-Karass last month in the debut of NBC Sports Network’s Fight Night. The 26-year-old is on a five-bout winning streak, and has tried to put a brief period in jail behind him following an altercation with police in Atlantic City last summer.

The cinnamon-haired Alvarez (39-0-1 29 KOs) is the current holder of the WBC 154-pound belt. In his last two outings, the 21-year-old has scored successive stoppages of former titlist Kermit Cintron (TKO5) last November and Alfonso Gomez (TKO6) as the co-feature to Floyd Mayweather’s last pay-per-view headliner against Victor Ortiz last September.

Ryan Maquiñana writes a weekly column for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area (CSNBayArea.com). He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and Ring Magazine’s Ratings Panel. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com, check out his blog at www.maqdown.com, or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.