Canelo Alvarez-DAZN Streaming Feud Intensifies Again

With his next fight nowhere in sight, the business of boxing and bad blood between Canelo Alvarez, Golden Boy Promotions and DAZN streaming service is bubbling over, once again. And, this time there may finally be enough momentum for DAZN to force Alvarez to sit out for even longer, until he agrees to what they want.

First, Mike Coppinger, insider for the Athletic, reported Wednesday morning that the feud continues with Alvarez’s camp and with the streaming service that originally gave him a staggering 11 fight, $365 million deal:

There’s growing concern Canelo Alvarez won’t fight in 2020 with DAZN offering about half of the $35M guaranteed and neither side budging, sources tell @TheAthletic. GBP and DAZN are at an impasse over contract language governing his opponents. Details:https://t.co/COptksplXv

— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) September 2, 2020

Apparently owner and CEO, Oscar De La Hoya, is leading the charge on behalf of his promotional outfit in saying that DAZN needs to agree for an opponent to get Canelo back in the ring and help all involved.

De La Hoya told the Athletic,

“While other sports are enjoying huge ratings….boxing is stuck with record-low viewership. Canelo getting back in the ring instantly changes everything.”

Now, a source told Big Fight Weekend several weeks ago, that DAZN had wanted the four-division World Champ Alvarez to take more than a 50% pay cut for his next fight. This due to the pandemic and no fan being able to attend. We reported then that he wouldn’t be fighting on September 12th and for the foreseeable future. 

Alvarez was originally to have fought England’s WBO Super Middleweight World Champ, Billy Joe Saunders, back in May. But, that fight was postponed by Covid-19 and Saunders eventually got himself suspended by the British Boxing Board of Control for comments he made on a social media video about domestic violence.

That ended Saunders chances for a fight with Alvarez, when the sport resumed a couple of months ago.

In the interim, fellow Brit, Callum Smith, who is the unbeaten, WBA 168 lb. champ, emerged in July as a possible opponent for Canelo for September 12th. But, nothing ever got finalized, financially or otherwise, for that fight to be made.

So, the days and weeks continue to tick by with Alvarez having not fought at all in this calendar year. The last time he was in the ring was his 11th TKO of Sergey Kovalev last November to win the WBO Light Heavyweight Titlte.

And, Coppinger is shedding light now on the desire by De La Hoya and his fighter to maybe break the entire deal with DAZN because of their salary reduction demand and wanting to make themselves a free agent.

Of course, Alvarez and De La Hoya still have an ugly, iccy private relationship themselves. That goes back to De La Hoya’s Matchmaker Robert Diaz causing Canelo to be stripped of his IBF 160 lb. title last Summer by not getting a deal done with mandatory Challenger, Sergei Derevyanchenko.

For his part, DAZN chairman John Skipper had negotiated personally with Alvarez back in March and got him to agree to the Saunders fight and also agree to third mega-battle with former Undisputed Middleweight champ, Gennady Golovkin.

Of course all of that was scuttled by the Coronavirus outbreak.

Further, DAZN continues to be plagued, especially in the U.S., by huge subscriber loss of the last five months due to the lack of boxing content, specifically. And, Alvarez is their “top draw” to regain subscribers.

And, at this stage, things are complicated by the fact that almost no fans have been able to attend any boxing events in the U.S. since March. and may not be for at least the next couple of months closing out 2020.

This makes it even more problematic for DAZN trying to figure out how to recoup their money and pay Canelo what he wants to be paid.

For now, “get your popcorn” on what gets resolved (or not) and whether the messy gets even messier with possible legal proceedings, etc., as ultimately the fans lose out on seeing Canelo in the ring in the short term.