Canelo’s short list of fighters for next May?

Fresh off of winning the WBO Light Heavyweight title nine days ago with an 11th round knockout of Sergey Kovalev, Canelo Alvarez obviously has several options for his next fight and which weight division he might want to fight.

And Matchroom Boxing promoter, Eddie Hearn, is very confident that it will be one of his fighters that will be next for Alvarez, probably on May 2nd.

Hearn spoke with Boxingscene.com and gave them a short list that he believes Canelo is strongly considering for his next bout:

Eddie Hearn: We Have Five Guys To Fight Canelo Next in May https://t.co/rDVZBhqLRv pic.twitter.com/g6gJaEU2jr

— BoxingScene.com (@boxingscene) November 11, 2019

“We’ve got five guys…… Gennady Golovkin, Billy Joe Saunders, Callum Smith if he beats John Ryder or John Ryder [if he wins], Dmitry Bivol and Demetrius Andrade, to fight Canelo. It’s going to come from one of those five,” Hearn told the site.

“It really should be Gennady Golovkin next, but we’ve got five [guys] and it will be one of those five next and the one after, probably, for Canelo.”

Hearn is correct that most of boxing fans and media want to see a third fight between Canelo and GGG. And although Alvarez was adamant throughout the summer that he was not going to give Golovkin a third bout, he seems to have softened his stance after his win over Kovalev. Alvarez told the media post-Kovalev fight that he might consider fighting GGG.

Alvarez and Golovkin fought to a controversial draw in September 2017, and then Canelo captured the Undisputed middleweight championship by defeating Golovkin in a rematch on a hotly-contested 12-round decision 12 months after their first fight.

Golovkin is reportedly going to make a mandatory defense of the  IBF Middleweight title he just won back in October. This would possibly in early February, and that could complicate fighting Alvarez in early May.

Or then again, maybe GGG won’t care about the three months or so turnaround, if he gets his third shot at Canelo.

Now, while Hearn is touting Britain’s Billy Joe Saunders, who scored in 11th round TKO Saturday night  in L.A. over unheralded Argentine Marcelo Coceres to retain his WBO 168 lb title, Saunders does not have much appeal in terms of style or notable wins.

We have written extensively before that American, Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade, who has the WBO’s 160 lbs. belt, seems to be a good candidate to fight Alvarez. Andrade is a talented boxer with an elusive style and is unbeaten. But, again, Canelo passed this summer on fighting Andrade.

And, some believe that the appeal of that fight isn’t worth the frustration that Andrade’s style might give Alvarez in the ring.

Finally, there is much belief that Alvarez won’t be fighting consistently at 175 pounds.

This is especially after he looked slow and put few combinations together while fighting for the first time at light heavyweight against the 36 year old Kovalev.

It seems much more likely that Alvarez will try to fight at 168 lbs. and that could also bring Britain’s Callum Smith into play or perhaps, as Hearn mentioned, WBA light heavyweight champion Dimitri Bivol would be willing to move down and wait and fight Alvarez at Super Middleweight.

Both of those fighters are bigger punchers and would be more intriguing fights… just like Golovkin.

Now, we wait to see if Canelo wants to fight any of those three in his next bout, or not.