Derevyanchenko’s manager says NO offer yet from Canelo Alvarez’s team

By Boxing News - 06/04/2020 - Comments

By Sean Jones. Golden Boy Promotions hasn’t yet made an offer to the management for Sergiy Derevyanchenko for a fight against Sergiy Derevyanchenko in September.

Derevyanchenko’s manager Keith Connolly told @MikeCoppinger that he hadn’t received an official offer yet from Golden Boy, but they have his number. Golden Boy has more than one option for Canelo’s next fight in September.

Once Connolly receives the offer from Golden Boy Promotions, he’ll sit down with Derevyanchenko’s adviser Al Haymon to discuss it.

Canelo will be the decider

It’s difficult to imagine which direction Golden Boy will go in for Canelo’s next fight. Ultimately, it’ll be up to Canelo if he wants to fight Derevyanchenko or not. He’s got a lot of other options against fighters at 168 and 175. All Canelo has to do is say the magic words, and he can get Dmitry Bivol and Jean Pascal to drop down from 175 to fight him at 168.

Canelo can also fight super middleweight champions, David Benavidez or Caleb Plant. Boxing fans would love to see Canelo face Benavidez or Plant, as those are popular champions with a lot of talent and size. If Canelo wants to show he’s for real at super middleweight, he’ll look to fight those guys.

They’re also reportedly interested in former WBC super-middleweight champion Anthony Dirrell as an opponent for WBA ‘regular’ 168-lb champion Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs).

Image: Derevyanchenko's manager says NO offer yet from Canelo Alvarez's team

If a fight gets made with Dirrell or Derevyanchenko, it would be Canelo’s first title defense for his WBA secondary 168-pound title since he won it in December 2019 in stopping champion Rocky Fielding in the third round at MSG in New York.

Surprisingly, the World Boxing Association hasn’t stripped Canelo of his title because he’s now had it for one and a half years without defending it.

Sanctioning bodies generally strip inactive champions when they fail to defend their titles on an annual basis. In Canelo’s case, he’s been sitting on his WBA title for 18 months without defending it.

Derevyanchenko’s manager waiting for the offer

Derevyanchenko looked like lightning in the bottle in his last fight against Gennadiy Golovkin last October. He gave Golovkin the toughest fight of his career and looked like he should have had his hand raised at the end.

The judges liked Golovkin’s more powerful shots that he landed in the fight. It was a tough fight for the judges to score, as they needed to decide whether to score it for Golovkin with his harder shots or Derevyancheko with him being busier.

If Canelo wants to send a message to the boxing world who is the better fighter between him and GGG, he’ll agree to fight Derevyanchenko. It might cost a little more than a fight against one of the contenders, but it’ll allow Canelo to show that he’s a better fighter than GGG.

Canelo will be fighting without a live audience for his next fight in September, and that makes it vital that he finds someone that can fit in the price range that Golden Boy has in mind. A lot of fighters may price themselves out for the fight. Derevyanchenko and Anthony Dirrell may be the beginning of what could be a long search for Golden Boy to find Canelo an opponent that they get on the cheap.

A lot of options for Alvarez

What we might see is Canelo ending up with someone like David Lemieux rather than Derevyanchenko or Dirrell. There’s no demand for Dirrell as an opponent for Canelo, but there is for Derevyanchenko. Lemieux’s career is nowhere right now, and he can’t afford to ask for a significant amount of money for a fight against Canelo.

Image: Derevyanchenko's manager says NO offer yet from Canelo Alvarez's team

If money is the main thing that determines who Canelo faces next, then it might be someone that fans least expect. Canelo already shocked fans in 2018 when he chose Rocky Fielding to fight instead of one of the talented 168-pound champions.

Hopefully, Golden Boy can come up with the money to get Canelo a good B-level opponent for September. Canelo won’t fight one of the dangerous fighters like Artur Beterbiev, Bivol, Demetrius Andrade, or Jermall Charlo. It would be great to see Canelo fight Derevyanchenko. That would be an excellent fight for Canelo, as long as he’s mentally prepared for the tough battle he’d be getting.