Canelo Alvarez Fight Delayed Until Fall Or Negotiating Ploy?

Another week is coming to a close and still no deal for Unified Super Middleweight champion and future Hall-of-Famer Canelo Alvarez to be back in the ring in September. However, the latest developments Friday are either an indication that he may be putting off his next fight until later this Fall, or maybe he’s actually headed back to the negotiating table one more time to get the best possible deal he can to salvage to fight with  IBF 168-pound World Champ, Caleb Plant.

First, as we have written the negotiations with the Nashville native Plant stalled late last month, when Alvarez was apparently demanding to receive his full $40 million guaranteed purse, even if Plant was sick and injured and a last-minute replacement opponent had to be found.

Obviously, Premier Boxing Champions and Fox pay-per-view balked at that idea of giving Canelo all his guaranteed money and following through with a PPV with a replacement opponent in a fight that would’t be for the Undisputed title.

We discussed this subject in detail on our latest “Big Fight Weekend” podcast, as Sr. Writer for the site, Marquis Johns joined me. Hear us by clicking below,

So, Canelo has allegedly moved on to trying to figure out who else he might be able to fight? That includes WBA unbeaten Lightweight World Champ Dimitry Bivol of Russia. Bivol is under a promotional agreement with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, whom Canelo previously did three consecutive fight deals with at the end of 2020 and the beginning of this year.

Still there’s been a major complication in that Bivol fights at 175 lb. and was apparently only interested in a Canelo fight at a “catchweight” of somewhere around 172 lb. Further complicating things is: Bivol does not live in the United States and would have to come to America to Covid test/quarantine before beginning training on short notice. That differs from Plant living in the country and having trained all along this Summer in anticipation of fighting Alvarez in September.

This led Hearn to take to social media Friday afternoon with the news/spin that Alvarez won’t be fighting anytime soon,

Spoke with @Canelo @CANELOTEAM and the team today. Saul is focused on a return to the ring in November. More news soon 👊 🇲🇽 pic.twitter.com/ErgBOxMlRX

— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) August 6, 2021

And, then Alvarez almost comically posted on Friday evening that not fighting on “Mexican Independence Day” weekend isn’t that big of a deal. This is especially dubious, since that’s been the whole thrust of having the proposed Unification fight with Plant in September on that weekend in Las Vegas,

No importa el día que pelee, el día que sea mi pelea es día de todos nosotros los mexicanos 🇲🇽🇲🇽 #teamcanelo @CANELOTEAM

— Canelo Alvarez (@Canelo) August 7, 2021

It should also be noted that Alvarez divorced himself in the Fall of last year from Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy promotions and eventually made a fight within 5 weeks against English WBA Super Middleweight world champ Callum Smith. So, it’s not as if Alvarez hasn’t done something similar recently in the same time frame to still have the fight in Las Vegas for September 18th with Plant.

Now, wonder what truly is (or not happening) next and we’ll know that soon enough.