LAS VEGAS — If Canelo Alvarez handles Amir Khan as adroitly as he did a question about his opinion of Mexico-bashing Donald Trump this week, tonight’s fight for the WBC middleweight championship may not last long.

During a conversation between Alvarez and writers at the MGM Casino, he was asked his feelings about the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who has called for a wall to be built along the Mexican border at Mexico’s expense. Trump has lambasted undocumented workers and illegal immigration, insulting Mexicans by claiming many are “rapists” and criminals. If he was a fighter, Trump would have been penalized for a low blow, but this is politics, where no blow is too low.

Young Alvarez, barely 25, is the most popular fighter in Mexico, a two-division world champion on the cusp of becoming the new face of prize fighting now that Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao have retired. He has begun to study English and is more fluent than he lets on, although like many trying to master a new language he understands more than he cares to speak.

So when the Trump question was asked, he didn’t wait for a translation. After pondering for a quick moment, he spoke eloquently of the feelings he carried with him about Trump as he would go off on lonely training runs in the early hours of the morning.

“I don’t really like getting into political issues, but it hurts, it offends,” Alvarez said of Trump’s rhetoric. “I would like him to understand us. When I’m out running, I see a lot of my countrymen working in the fields. They have not come here to rob and steal. We want to show him that we Mexicans come here to work hard and succeed and be victorious.”

It was like an Alvarez combination landing flush on Trump’s bluster. An economy of words delivered as his punches often are: squarely on target.

Such punching accuracy is what Khan, a 5-1 underdog whose lack of size, loose defense and porcelain chin seem to doom him, must concern himself with. Khan (31-3, 19 KOs) is a former junior welterweight champion who has never strayed over welterweight limit. Tonight, his inaugural appearance in the middleweight division, comes against one of the two best 160-pounders in the world. As a strategy, it’s like saying you’re going to build a wall and get someone else to pay for it.

This is not to say Khan has no chance, but it suggests his margin for error is slim and the consequences for the kind of mistakes he sometimes makes concussive.

Khan has speed, agility, improved defense now that he’s been working with trainer Virgil Hunter and packs a pretty good punch. His problem is that he sometimes falls in love with throwing and neglects to remember catching. That will be especially dangerous tonight in the inaugural boxing match at the new T-Mobile Arena because Alvarez is bigger, stronger and, at least in the champion’s opinion, faster than Khan anticipates.

“As for everyone calling this a fight between his speed and my power, opponents don’t realize how fast I am until they get in the ring with me,” Alvarez claims.

If Khan underestimates Alvarez’ speed and lingers too long in the pocket in front of him, he will find himself in big trouble. Or, more likely, on the floor. He has acknowledged as much and said Hunter has been working to break him of that habit. That’s all well and good. The problem comes once he’s tired and forgets his lessons.

It is then that Khan — at the moment when it may seem he’s doing well — is most vulnerable to the big mistake.

“It’s been tough working on these strategies with my trainer, being more focused, because I know that one little mistake in a fight like this could get me in trouble,” Khan admitted. “I’ve made mistakes in the past against guys my own weight because I know naturally I’m more gifted than them and I’m more skilled than them and I’m a better fighter than them. Those are ones that probably could be my worst opponents because I don’t really have that fear element, whereas when you’re fighting someone who’s tough and who’s dangerous and it’s going to be a tough fight, then that’s what brings out the ‘A’ game in me.

“I know every punch Canelo hits me with will be painful, so I have to fight smart. I can’t get hit a lot, so we’ve been working on my movement. Head movement, foot movement. I know I can’t stay in the pocket too long. I can’t stay in front of him.”

That’s easy to say until the night comes and the rounds have wound along and the heat of the lights have begun to sap your strength. That’s when you linger too long in the wrong spot or try to land one punch too many and a guy like Alvarez suddenly unleashes punches from angles you don’t expect and for which you have no defenses built.

“Canelo likes to slip a punch, counter with a straight right, then a right uppercut and a left hook,” explained his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya. “It’s a difficult combination to throw.”

It’s also difficult to avoid, especially for someone who has been knocked out twice and knocked down a number of times because he forgot the basics of boxing, which is to say hit but don’t get hit.

“He’s learned the advantage of not getting hit as often as he used to and how it will make him a better fighter and prolong his career,” Hunter claimed.

By midnight or so, we’ll know if those lessons stuck or Canelo Alvarez’ fists did.