Report- Canelo Alvarez Golden Boy DAZN Sought Mediation Tuesday

The latest twist in the Canelo Alvarez / Golden Boy Promotions / DAZN streaming service acrimony that has kept the fighter out of the ring for nearly a year, involves all of the parties being involved in a mediation session on Tuesday that has apparently resulted in a new offer being made to the fighter.

The Athletic broke the story Thursday afternoon that the three sides met for 10 hours Tuesday with Alvarez now being offered an amended new contract, guaranteeing him significantly less money, but with an incentive for DAZN subscribers added, in exchange for him being willing to get back in the ring:

SOURCES: Canelo, DAZN and Golden Boy’s De La Hoya/Eric Gomez along with legal teams had a 10-hour session with a mediator Tuesday where DAZN offered Alvarez a deal that pays more than $20M guaranteed per bout plus upside tied to subscribers

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— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) September 24, 2020

Alvarez was reportedly in attendance via Zoom along with DAZN Chief Operating Officer Ed McCarthy, Golden Boy owner and Boxing Hall of Famer, Oscar De La Hoya and their chief matchmaker, Eric Gomez.

According to the Athletic, the mediator was given both Alvarez’s contract with Golden Boy, as well as the promotion’s deal with DAZN, and in the Athletic’s terminology- the two offers “do not mesh,” when it comes to who gets to dictate what opponents Alavarez fights.

That’s at the heart of the dispute that DAZN is apparently wanting Canelo to agree to a “premium opponent” for his next fight and refusing to pay his massive guarantee until he does.

The Athletic went on to say that Alvarez was given an offer Tuesday of $20 million per fight moving forward on a deal that still has eight fights remaining but was originally for over $35 million per bout.

It has been widely reported the DAZN has been seeking for Canelo to take a significant pay cut not only due to the Covid 19 pandemic this year what DAZN’s inability to maintain subscribers / revenue with its U.S. streaming service.

That led Alvarez to eventually file a whopping $280 million lawsuit two weeks ago in California Federal Court. However, the judge assigned to the case quickly dismissed it for improper filing of defendants.  But, he gave Alvarez and his lawyers until Monday the 28th to refile an amended version of it.

The suit also makes clear that DAZN was trying to force Alvarez to fight former Undisputed Middleweight champion, Gennady Golovkin, for a third time. But, Alvarez continues to maintain, now in the legal filing, that he has every right to rebuff that third fight. That part of the suit read partially,

“Prior to these discussions with Defendants, Alvarez was unaware that DAZN believed Golden Boy Promotions had promised that he would fight Golovkin, unaware that the DAZN Contract gave DAZN the right to reject the opponents he selected, and was unaware that the DAZN Contract contained clauses potentially inconsistent with those of the Alvarez Contract.”

Alvarez and GGG fought two hotly contested fights in 2017 and 2018 with the first ending in a draw and Canelo winning a narrow decision in the rematch handing Golovkin his only pro loss.

Alvarez, Golden Boy and DAZN have been in a “standoff,” as to who his next fight would be against. This had included the possibility of Canelo fighting another British Super middleweight and WBA champ, Callum Smith. But, that fight has yet to materialize.

So, Canelo has not been in the ring since he competed for the first time at the Light Heavyweight, beating WBO champ Sergey Kovalev by 11th round TKO last November. That’s his only fight in the last 17 months with the now continued squabbling under the Golden Boy/DAZN deal.

Canelo reportedly wants to fight Turkish Super Middleweight contender, Avni Yildirim, later this fall, but that was apparently rejected by DAZN. So, now, he took the blockbuster legal move to try to end his deal with Golden Boy and DAZN.

As we wrote previously, De La Hoya publicly stated early last week that he and Golden Boy wanted to work things out through arbitration, which is standard in these types of high-profile contracts and is much quicker than the U.S. Civil Court system.

It’s important to note that a mediator is different, because that is someone whose sole job is to try to get the parties to agree without making a legal ruling himself.

The Athletic’s Mike Coppinger reported in their article that “Alvarez is mulling over the offer” from DAZN, but also, still considering moving forward with the lawsuit.

The clock is obviously ticking on a compromise to be achieved or Alvarez to re-file the suit.

We continue to wait to see if this means that Alvarez will be back in the ring before the end of year or not?