In January 2015, Oscar De La Hoya announced that Álvarez and James Kirkland (32–1, 28 KOs) had agreed to fight each other although no date or venue was set, in a non-title light middleweight bout. The reason why the date was not set was due to the upcoming Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight not having an official date. In March, at the official press conference, the fight was announced to take place at the Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas on 9 May 2015, live on HBO, a week after the 2 May fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao. It marked the first fight of Álvarez's lucrative HBO contract. In front of 31,588, Álvarez defeated Kirkland via third-round KO. Kirkland came out aggressively, but Álvarez wobbled him and scored a knockdown via straight right hand in round one. In the third round, a counter right uppercut sent Kirkland to the canvas. Álvarez ended the fight with a jab to the body quickly followed by the right hand, creating the KO. Álvarez landed 87 of 150 punches thrown (58%) and Kirkland landed 42 of 197 (21%). After the bout, Kirkland said, "I did not know I was knocked out." He was then taken to hospital to undergo a CT scan. The win for Álvarez set up a mega PPV fight between himself and WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto. The fight drew an average of 2.146 million viewers on HBO and peaked at 2.296 million, the highest viewership for HBO in 2015.