Golden Boy’s Richard Schaefer puts together dynamic lineup of spring fights

The start of the year has been slow from a boxing standpoint, but thanks to some hustle by Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, that is about to change.

Schaefer has filled out a long and impressive spring schedule with a series of top fights. Notably, he said Friday that the WBC featherweight title bout between champion Daniel Ponce de Leon and former super bantamweight champion Abner Mares would be the top undercard bout on May 4 for the Showtime pay-per-view match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Robert Guerrero.

In addition, though, Schaefer has a series of other quality fights lined up:

April 20

: Canelo Alvarez will meet Austin Trout on Showtime in a WBA-WBC super welterweight title unification at the Alamodome in San Antonio. He said he might match unbeaten Omar Figueroa against the winner of Saturday's Richard Abril-Sharif Bogere title match in the TV opener.

April 27: This will be a split-site doubleheader, with Danny Garcia defending his super lightweight title against Zab Judah in Brooklyn, N.Y., with Amir Khan meeting Julio Diaz in the opener in Sheffield, England.

May 4: This will be the Mayweather-Guerrero card on Showtime pay-per-view from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It will feature an all-action battle between Ponce de Leon and Mares as the chief undercard bout.

May 18: Schaefer said he's finalized the IBF welterweight title bout between Devon Alexander and unbeaten challenger Kell Brook as the main event from Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. He said he is hopeful that a super lightweight title match between Lamont Peterson and Lucas Matthysse will open that show, though it hasn't been finalized, yet.

June 8: Marcos Maidana will meet Josesito Lopez rom the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles on Showtime. That will be a tripleheader, Schaefer said, though he has no other fights lined up yet.

June 15: Schaefer's plan is to have lightweight champion Adrien Broner make his Las Vegas headliner debut on this date on HBO at Mandalay Bay. No opponent has been named, though he said he is interested in getting Ricky Burns. Burns will face Miguel Vazquez on March 16 in England in a bout shown on Epix in the U.S. If Burns wins, he'd become the front-runner to meet Broner.

June 22: The first Golden Boy card of summer will feature Paulie Malignaggi on Showtime from the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn.

"All of these fights are just great match-ups," Schaefer said. "There's not one where you would say, 'Ah, I don't care for that one so much.' For all the years I've been doing this, I can't remember a lineup of absolutely great, great fights essentially going back-to-back-to-back like we have them. I'm so happy to be able to pull it off."