CANELO ALVAREZ – boxing’s biggest star – is using his free agent status to determine what will likely be some of the biggest fights of the year. Given his standing in the sport, any time the flame-haired Mexican fights is an enormous event, but recent reports suggest he is eyeing up some special fights this year.
ESPN claim that Canelo is leaning toward a $85m two-fight deal with DAZN, which would see him fight Dmitry Bivol at light-heavyweight before moving into a blockbuster trilogy fight with Gennady Golovkin at super-middleweight.
Alvarez would need to beat Bivol – in a fight slated for May 7 – and “GGG” would also need to prevail in his upcoming fight with Ryoto Murata, which has yet to be rescheduled after it was postponed last year due to COVID-19.
The other offer on the table was a $45m fight with Jermall Charlo, which came from Al Haymon’s PBC. That is looking increasingly unlikely, particularly as reports emerged in the past few days claiming Charlo had been arrested in Fort Bend County, Texas.
He has allegedly been charged with Assault Causing Bodily Injury of a Family Member, though further details remain thin.
Though it seems Canelo is most likely to take the DAZN deal his trainer, Eddy Reynoso, posted a statement on Twitter discrediting these reports and claiming no decision has yet been made about his charge’s next fight.
Even without Charlo’s troubles outside the ring, this seems like a no-brainer. On the face of it, the DAZN deal guarantees more money but it also presents Canelo with further opportunities to pursue greatness.
Bivol is a very tricky fight at 175lbs and would pose more problems for Canelo than Charlo would. Plus, there’s then the prospect of a third fight with Golovkin. Though time is against the Kazakh, it’s still an intriguing fight and, based on their first two, will surely produce fireworks.
As ever, Canelo is leading by example.
Unfortunately, the current crop of lightweights aren’t following suit, as things stand. George Kambosos Jnr, after his stunning win over Teofimo Lopez last year, is on the hunt for another big fight and it looks as though it’s going to take place in his native Australia.
According to BoxingScene, funding for Kambosos’ next fight will come from the Australian government, who view significant sporting events as tourism opportunities.
However his promoter, Lou DiBella, told the same website that negotiations with Devin Haney’s team have fallen flat. He claims he sent an offer to DAZN, with whom Haney is aligned, only for Eddie Hearn to send back an “insulting,” “preposterous” and “ridiculous” counter-offer.
DiBella wouldn’t go into further detail as he “[doesn’t] believe in negotiating in the press” – an attitude that more promoters should adopt – but insisted he needed to speak out because he felt Hearn had been “lying” when he claimed he and Haney’s team had received no offer for a Kambosos fight.
Kambosos and Haney have been trading barbs on Twitter for what now seems like decades, highlighting just how frustrating the 135lb division is becoming; it’s all just foreplay. Kambosos himself seems intent on fighting the best; after defeating Lopez, he was on the road trying to drum up interest in fights with the likes of Haney and Vasiliy Lomachenko.
In fact, his next fight could be against the Ukrainian wizard. Lopez, apparently, is moving up while Haney’s next move is unknown, as is that of Gervonta Davis. Ryan Garcia is returning to action soon after a brief hiatus to address mental health concerns, though he recently announced a change of trainer.
He has left Reynoso and will now train under Joe Goossen. Some people bizarrely claimed this was because Garcia couldn’t hack the hard work required at Reynoso’s gym, which ignores the fact that Goossen is a notorious taskmaster.
What this all equates to is a stalled weight division. Despite there being numerous big fights that could be made, still none of them look close.
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Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano took part in a press tour to promote their superfight later this year. At a press conference in London, Serrano said: “I’m a woman for equality. If Katie Taylor’s willing, I’m ready and willing to make this 12 rounds of three minutes [each].”
It’s a sentiment we’ve all been thinking, and good on Serrano for using this stage to make the bid. Surprisingly, Taylor shot down the idea when she said: “I don’t really feel like that will make a huge change. The fight is already iconic the way it is.”
Having already done so much to raise the profile of women’s boxing, it seems odd that Taylor wouldn’t push for parity with men’s boxing for such an important fight. Of course, the contracts for the fight are already signed and will have stipulated two-minute rounds.
Also, the decision to change the duration of rounds will surely have to be made higher up the chain. After all, if two male fighters decided they wanted to increase their round length to four minutes, for example, it’s unlikely the authorities would allow it.
Matchroom Boxing appear to have launched a revamped ‘From the Corner’ series, which sees host Fraser Dainton sit down with several prominent coaches. In this latest episode, it was Andre Rozer, Tony Sims, Dave Coldwell and Mark Tibbs.
It was a really interesting discussion and it’s a great format. If it’s set to continue, then we can look forward to more excellent content from it, particularly when several big trainers are all in one place during fight week.
Broadcasts
DAZN held their first British card of the year at Alexandra Palace in London and it produced some cracking fights and bizarre scorecards. One thing that stood out was the prominence of fledgling heavyweight Johnny Fisher’s fight – he was chief support in a six-rounder, which served as his fifth professional fight. The 22-year-old is incredibly popular and had sold thousands of tickets for the event, which goes some way to explaining why he was so high up the bill. He also seemed to handle the pressure well, earning a decision over a veteran opponent.