Canelo now targeting September fight?
While we await professional sports to resume in North America, apparently multi division World Champion Canelo Alvarez already has an idea of when he is fighting next. And, it doesn’t look like it will be anytime soon.
The premier non heavyweight in the world told Mexican TV’s “Box Azteca” on Tuesday night, that he doesn’t believe he will fight before September due to the outbreak of COVID -19 worldwide:
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“In my mind, I’m fighting in September. Hopefully all of this will pass and that date will still be possible.”
Right now, everything is on standby,” Alvarez continued. “There’s nothing going on, nothing discussed. Not even about when the next fight is going to be, because of the situation. They say there won’t be any fights until after July, so we’re waiting, since everything is backtracked because of people who don’t follow or believe in rules.” (Social distancing, isolation, etc.)
“We had a good plan for 2020, but unfortunately this happened. We had really big plans, and hopefully in July or a month afterward, we’ll see positive results with this situation. We’ll see what happens.”
We have written previously that Alvarez and potential future opponent, Gennady Golovkin, should disregard their fights that they we’re trying to have when the Coronavirus outbreak happened in mid-March. And, instead, they should go ahead and prepare for their third battle later this year.
Now, Johnathon Banks, the trainer for Golovkin, told IFL TV on Tuesday that they apparently will go ahead with triple G’s schedule IBF mandatory Middleweight Title defense against Kamil Szeremeta. It’s unclear on how soon that fight could take place.
So, if true, would this mean that Alvarez would go back to fighting British unbeaten Super Middleweight champion, Billy Joe Saunders in September or later? That’s also predicated on Saunders being reinstated after being indefinitely suspended by the British boxing Board of control for jokes that he made on a social media video about domestic violence.
It is also still unclear as to how long the BBBOC will keep Saunders suspended or not.
And as for promoters, Golden Boy, Matchroom Boxing and DAZN streaming service, they know the third Canelo-GGG fight is arguably their collective biggest draw for the remainder of this calendar year, no matter when it’s held.
Now, there is another significant financial argument on where it could be held, either in the United States or elsewhere, and possibly, could fans attend later in the year? Just as with their first two in encounters in September of 2017 and the rematch 12 months later, the live gate of Alvarez-GGG III could represent $20 million or more.
Now, we wait for the details to get worked out.
A veteran broadcaster of over 25 years, T.J. has been a fight fan longer than that! He’s the host of the “Big Fight Weekend” podcast and will go “toe to toe” with anyone who thinks that Marvin Hagler beat Sugar Ray Leonard or that Tyson, Lennox Lewis or Deontay Wilder could have beaten Ali!