When Sugar Shane Mosley next enters the ring it will have been nearly a year since his last fight, but he won't be getting any slack from his opponent, WBC junior middleweight beltholder Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.

The 21-year-old Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 knockouts) is 19 years younger than Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KOs), and will bring a substantial amount of Mexican star power to their May 5 bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as the precursor to Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Miguel Cotto.

Mosley feels strongly that he can defeat the younger man, though, despite the fact that he is 0-2-1 in his past three bouts and is returning to the site of his past two losses: one-sided unanimous decisions against Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

The clash offers Mosley a shot at his sixth major title over the course of three divisions.

Alvarez is after the fourth straight knockout in as many defenses of the belt he won by unanimous decision over Matthew Hatton last March, and he's coming off a fifth-round knockout of former welterweight beltholder Kermit Cintron in November.

RingTV.com: I understand that you're already in Big Bear feeling good about facing Alvarez?

Shane Mosley: I'm ready to fight. I'm excited. I think that it's a great fight for me to put me back on the map. He has the belts and I think that it's going to put me in line for bigger and better things.

But I have to get past him, so let's do it. But he's hungry and he's looking to take out a legend.

RingTV.com: What do you say to those who would say that you're in for a tough night since you turned 40 in September and will not have been in the ring for two days short of a year by the time you enter the ring against Alvarez?

SM: I really don't have anything to say about that. I think that I just have to let my fists do the talking and then we'll move on from there.