Mandatory defense deadline for Canelo Alvarez moved to Monday

The ongoing saga of when and where World Middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will fight next continued on Friday. That’s when one aspect of the drama, a deadline to agree to fight Russian Contender Sergiy Derevyachenko, was pushed to Monday afternoon.

The IBF wants Canelo (35-1-2 18 KOs) to commit to fight their top contender, Derevyachenko, this fall or they have threatened to strip him of their middleweight championship.

The Athletic’s Lance Pugmire had more:

The Sergey Derevyanchenko camp and @IBFUSBAboxing have agreed to a Monday mid-day Pacific time deadline for @Canelo to accept a fight. If he doesn’t, @TheAthleticBOX has been told, he’ll relinquish that belt and Derevyanchenko moves toward title-fight talks with @GGGBoxing.

— Lance Pugmire (@pugboxing) July 26, 2019

So, as Pugmire tweeted, Derevyachenko would then likely meet the former Undisputed Middleweight champion, Gennady Golovkin, in a battle for the vacant belt, instead.

If you think that above was confusing, get ready.

Canelo has simultaneously been negotiating with Russian light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev, but they have been unable to come to terms financially on Canelo moving up to the 175 lbs. weight class. That fight would allow him go for yet another world title in a different weight division.

But, as it stands right now, Kovalev will fight Anthony Yarde  this fall instead in defense of his championship and then, wait to see what happens next with Alvarez.

Canelo is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions and has a broadcast contract agreement with DAZN streaming that paid him a record guarantee of $365 million for 10 fights. Canelo has been unable, with Golden Boy, to find an opponent to satisfy DAZN for this fall.

And, Alvarez has only fought one time this year and that was a 12 round decision win over IBF middleweight champion, Daniel Jacobs in May.

It had been rumored the Canelo would be trying to fight WBO Junior Middleweight champion Jaime Munguia of Mexico (with him moving up to 160 lbs.) to satisfy his DAZN obligation. That fight has not materialized, either.

Reportedly, it’s very important to Alvarez to maintain all of the belts, but the IBF has held firm that Derevyachenko (13-1 10 KOs) is their number one contender after he defeated Jack Culcay by decision in April and should get a title shot. This is especially, when Alvarez can’t come to an agreement with another middleweight contender.

Still with us on this?

Another part of this soap opera is Golovkin (39-1-1 35 KOs), who also has a deal with DAZN streaming service. He did that deal earlier in 2019 with DAZN in hopes of having a third fight with Alvarez for the Undisputed Middleweight title.

GGG and Alvarez fought to a draw in their first battle in September of 2017, and Alvarez won the rematch and undisputed title by a disputed decision 12 months later. It was Golovkin’s first professional loss.

But, apparently, Alvarez has no interest in making that third fight for later this year.

Therefore, Golovkin will be more than content to battle Derevyachenko for the vacant belt and with a win, get one of the belts back to gain leverage for the third fight with Canelo looming.