By Kenneth Friedman: Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez say the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Sergey Kovalev fight isn’t a done deal as reported by sources. Gomez says “nothing done” in the negotiations for that fight. The negotiations are still underway.
The match is being talked about taking place on November 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Canelo will be fighting Kovalev (34-3, 29 KOs) for his WBO light heavyweight title, and the chance to become a 4 division world champ. This will be a huge accomplishment for Canelo to beat Kovalev, because he’ll be giving away so much size.
Gomez says Canelo vs. Kovalev not done
Nothing done. Wrong again source-erer! Premature announcing making you very unpopular https://t.co/WWO0A3aGqh
— Eric Gomez (@makeawar) September 8, 2019
It’s likely that Golden Boy Promotions will choose an important time to reveal when the fight is eventually made. This Saturday is the Cinco de Mayo holiday, and that would be an ideal time for Golden Boy to make a news announcement about the Canelo-Kovalev fight. Despite Gomez saying it’s not done, the fight is almost surely going to go down on November 2. There’s too much money on the line for it not to.
Will Canelo get catchweight agreement from Kovalev?
What a lot of boxing fans are wondering about is whether Canelo will be able to pressure the 36-year-old Kovalev to agree to a catchweight handicap for him. Given Canelo’s long history of using catchweights and rehydration clauses, it’s predictable that he’ll have one of those in play for his fight with Kovalev.
Kovalev the early underdog against Canelo
The Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez is a 5:1 favorite over Kovalev, according to Fight News. Moving up 2 weight classes to take on one of the biggest punchers at 175, it’s a risky proposition for Saul Alvarez.
This past week, Mike Coppinger reported that the Canelo-Kovalev fight was close to being finalized. But according to Canelo’s promoter Gomez, it’s not done. This was a premature announcement unfortunately, but likely not too far off the mark.
— Canelo Alvarez (@Canelo) September 9, 2019
Kovalev successfully defended his title last month against Anthony Yarde in stopping him in the 11th round on August 24 in Russia. The management for Kovalev had previously attempted to get Yarde to agree to step aside so that he could face Canelo, but he refused to do so.
In hindsight, Yarde made the mistake of not accepting the step aside payment, because he would have still gotten a title shot against the Canelo-Kovalev winner. Yarde almost won the fight after hurting Kovalev in the 8th round. He wasn’t able to finish him in that round, but it was close. Kovalev was hurt enough for the fight to be stopped, but the referee let him stay in there to finish the round. Kovalev came back strong in the 9th, and controlled the remainder of the fight.