By Sean Jones: Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn expects DAZN not to approve Canelo Alvarez vs. Avni Yildirim to fight on their platform for the WBC super-middleweight title.
The World Boxing Council revealed this week that Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs) had been approved as the opponent to face #1 WBC Yildirim (21-2, 12 KOs) for the vacant WBC 168-lb belt.
Lousy timing for Alvarez to face a soft opponent
If DAZN rejects the Canelo-Yildirum fight, Hearn is hoping that his fighter Callum Smith can take on Yildirim for the vacant WBC title. Also, Hearn would like to have Callum face Canelo. That’s the ideal fight, but it’s unknown if Canelo vs. Smith can be made this year.
Unfortunately, it’s terrible timing for Canelo to take on an obscure fighter that brings nothing to the table in terms of fan interest.
Right now, DAZN needs Canelo to face talented opposition like Callum Smith, Gennady Golovkin, Jermall Charlo, Artur Beterbiev, and Dmitry Bivol.
According to WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman, Canelo requested that he be considered as the opponent for Yildirim to face for WBC super-middleweight title. This is the title that was stripped from former champion David Benavidez last week when he failed to make weight for his title defense against Roamer Angulo.
Hearn says he can’t see DAZN approving the Canelo-Yildirim fight for their platform, as there’s no interest in that fight by boxing fans. What’s unclear is why Canelo would choose to face a guy that the U.S boxing fans have no interest in watching him fight.
Is this a reaction by Canelo due to him having issues with DAZN, or he wants to win another easy title? Canelo chose an easy opponent in his last fight in moving up to 175 to take on Sergey Kovalev for his WBO 175lb title last November.
Canelo also made a similar move in fighting Rocky Fielding for his WBA regular super-middleweight title in 2018. Both of those fights were approved by DAZN, but it doesn’t look like they’re going to agree to Canelo facing Yildirim.
DAZN may not approve Canelo vs. Yildirim
“I don’t see any interest in that fight anywhere personally,” said Eddie Hearn to IFL TV on the Canelo Alvarez vs. Avni Yildirim match. “I wasn’t surprised [that the WBC approved Canelo as Yildirim’s opponent].
“We put in a request for Callum Smith[to face Yildirim for the vacant WBC 168-lb title]. At the convention, it was quite clear that Yildirim is mandatory, and the mandatory after that is Callum Smith, even though he’s the WBA champion.
“He’s been trying to win that belt [WBC] for a long time. We put the request in. I said to Callum, ‘Just to let you know; they’re going to put Canelo in with Yildirim or request that.’
“If that fight [Canelo vs. Yildirim] doesn’t get approved [by DAZN], which I can’t see any way it does by a broadcaster, then Callum Smith should fight Yildirim per the WBC’s order for the WBC world title.
“That’s what we hope to happen, but we still hope that Callum Smith gets the Canelo fight. It’s frustrating for Callum at the moment, but he’s in a good spot. I think it’ll be an interesting couple of weeks.
“And I think he’ll fight this year, but it’s not my business,” said Hearn about Canelo Alvarez. “I work for the same platform [DAZN] that he boxes on, so there’s definitely a desire to see him box this year. My guess is you’ll see Canelo Alvarez back in the ring in November,” said Hearn.
It would seem like a no-brainer that DAZN would reject Yildirim as an opponent for Canelo to fight, as they’re paying the Golden Boy star a lot of money per fight. Canelo has already had two gimmes in Rocky Fielding and over-the-hill Sergey Kovalev as part of his 11-fight, $365 million contract.
The one good fighter Canelo has fought on his contract Daniel Jacobs, but Gennady Golovkin and Dmitry Pirog had already beaten him.
Canelo requested Yildirim fight
“Breaking news, Canelo Alvarez has been ordered by the WBC to fight Avni Yildirim for the vacant 168-lb belt that formerly belonged to David Benavidez,” said Lance Pugmire on the Pug and Cop Boxing Show.
“I briefly spoke to Mauricio Sulaiman of the WBC, and he said it’s really not an order. It’s really a request by Canelo Alvarez to fight for that vacant belt, and that he wants this fight. They’re going to do what it takes to allow this fight to happen.
“We know that Canelo was in talks with Callum Smith and they were trying to make that fight happen as well. There’s all this behind the scenes drama with DAZN trying to scale back his [Canelo] in light of the COVID 19 era. What do you think happens now that this situation has arisen?”
Boxing fans don’t want to see Canelo fight another soft opponent like Avni, who was knocked out in three rounds by Chris Eubank Jr. in 2017 and is coming off of 10th round technical decision to past his prime 35-year-old Anthony Dirrell last year in February 2019.
Yildirim hasn’t fought since his defeat against Dirrell, and that makes him a weak opponent for Canelo to be challenging.
What did Canelo expect DAZN to do when he chose Yildirim to fight? Did he think DAZN would approve this fight, or did he intentionally select Yildirim, knowing that he would likely be rejected?
DAZN wanted Alvarez to face Golovkin
“It’s really not so much that they’re [DAZN] trying to scale back his pay because of COVID. It’s that they’re trying to scale back the pay [for Canelo] because they are furious that Golden Boy has failed to deliver the [Gennady] Golovkin fight,” said Mike Coppinger.
“They want a massive event. They don’t want Callum Smith right now, at least for a $35 million guaranteed, I am told. So it goes far deeper than COVID, and it’s a big, big problem right now. I don’t know when Canelo is going to fight.
“Certainly, it’s not going to be in September, and I don’t think it’s going to be in October or November of this year. Unless things have changed and they get settled next week, but it doesn’t look like it’s headed that way the last I checked in.
“If they [DAZN] weren’t thrilled at paying full price for Callum Smith, will they go ahead and pay full price or even approve Canelo against Avni Yildirim? I just don’t see it.”
“Do you think Canelo is saying, ‘Look, I know that they’re going to be trimming my pay, so if they are, then I’m going to take this fight. Do you think that’s what’s going on? That this is a little game of chess that’s going on?” asked Pugmire in trying to understand why Canelo would pick Yildirim to fight instead of a popular fighter for his next contest on DAZN.
Canelo should have fought Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) last year in 2019 rather than facing Daniel Jacobs and Sergey Kovalev. DAZN wanted Canelo to fight GGG in 2019, and it made all the sense in the world for him to give them that fight last year.
There wasn’t any demand from boxing fans to see Canelo fight Jacobs or Kovalev. Jacobs had already lost to GGG, and he’d looked terrible in beating Sergiy Derevyanchenko by a controversial 12 round decision. Kovalev had looked shot to pieces in his match against Anthony Yarde in 2019.
Some boxing fans believe that Canelo intentionally chose not to fight GGG last year so that he could age him a little more. Golovkin had arguably beaten Canelo at age 35 in their first fight in 2017 and then lost a controversial decision to him a year later at age 36 in 2018.
GGG didn’t want to wait a year to face Canelo after their first fight. He wanted the match right away, but instead, he had to wait a year. Golovkin wanted an immediate rematch against Canelo after his loss in 2018, but instead, he’s had to wait while the Golden Boy star has taken on Kovalev and Jacobs.
It’s got to be bad for DAZN, as they’re paying Canelo a ton of money, and they wanted to see him fight Golovkin a third time. Instead, DAZN has watched Canelo face Rocky Fielding, Jacobs, Kovalev, and now he could be fighting Yildirim.
Does DAZN want Canelo to take a pay cut?
“I’ve heard that they’ve [DAZN] have asked him [Canelo] to take half of the $35 [million]; basically 17 ½ or something,” said Coppinger. “Maybe there’s a concession that can be made where I fight Avni Yildirim and do it for half?
“Maybe, I don’t know. I would be speculating there that would be OK, but they’re going to have to figure out something and figure it out fast because the relationship is going south between DAZN and Golden Boy, and now Canelo involved in this.
“Maybe it’s going to help thaw Canelo’s frosty relationship with Golden Boy a little bit now that they’re forced to be on the same side?”
If the rumors are true that DAZN wants Canelo to take a 50% pay cut for his next fight, then it would make sense for him to face Yildirim rather than one of the quality 168-pound fighters.
The question is, does Canelo rate $17.5 million for a fight against Yildirim? That’s a lot of money for a fight that has mismatch written all over it, and likely won’t attract new subscribers to DAZN.
For a low-level fight like Yildirim, which won’t help DAZN in a huge way, is $17.5 million a good figure, or should he get a fraction of that amount?
It’s arguably a waste of time for DAZN to stream the Canelo vs. Yildirim clash if the fans aren’t going to tune in to watch it, and it’s odd that this match would be made in the first place.
Canelo already holds the secondary WBA super middleweight, which he’s never defended since capturing the belt in 2018.
Why would Canelo want to fight for the WBC 168lb strap against the little known Yildirim rather than defending his WBA secondary 168lb strap against one of the contenders that have been waiting two years for a title shot?
Canelo’s trainer spoke to WBC about Yildirim fight
“It’s an interesting world boxing is. It’s crazy,” said Pugmire. “I think Canelo definitely has a lot to think about.
“It sounds as if, I was told by Sulaiman that [Canelo’s trainer] Eddy Reynoso himself reached out to the WBC and said, ‘Look, this is the fight that we want [between Alvarez and Yildirim]. This is what we’re requesting,’ and his [Canelo] position as [WBC] Franchise champion, he has the power to make those requests.
“And not only that, elevate himself beyond the other guys like David Benavidez and Callum Smith, who also were seeking to add this belt [WBC super-middleweight title] or re-add the belt in Benavidez’s case, to their collection. So it is very interesting, and where it goes from here will be just so fascinating.
“I know it’s all the result of David Benavidez missing weight on Friday for more than two pounds, and then he was super heavy when the fight actually came against Roamer Angulo on Saturday, a fight that he dominated by winning by a 10th round TKO.
It’s strange that Canelo’s trainer Eddy Reynoso would ask the WBC to allow him to fight Yildirim for the vacant 168-lb belt. As Canelo’s long-time trainer, Reynoso has to know that the fans have no interest in seeing him face Yildirim.
Reynoso said recently when asked why Canelo didn’t pick IBF/WBC 175lb champion Beterbiev (15-0, 15 KOs), that he viewed Sergey Kovalev as the best fighter at 175. If Reynoso views Kovalev as a better fighter than Beterbiev, then maybe he sees Yildirim as the #1 guy at 168?
David Benavidez ranked #1 by WBC at 175
“I just saw that the WBC moved him [David Benavidez] to #1 at the light heavyweight ratings,” said Pugmire. “What’s that all about. I actually believe Benavidez should just stay at super-middleweight and try and make the weight next time.”
“I spoke to some people involved with David Benavidez, and they said he is indeed staying at 168,” said Coppinger. “This was more about as Benavidez said on the broadcast, that this was more of an issue about diet and nutrition than it was than anything else.
“He said he trained hard and all. I don’t believe he used a nutritionist for this camp, and I do believe he’ll stay at 168. That makes more sense, as you said. That’s where the Caleb Plant fight is, Daniel Jacobs, Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders. It’s a stacked weight class.
“At 175, it’s a little bare right now other than a couple of guys [Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol]. So, I do think he’ll [Benavidez] stay there, and I think he looked really good against Roamer Angulo.
“David Benavidez is an excellent fighter, and he looked just as good as always. Hopefully, he can get his weight on track, and he can become a three-time world champion sooner or later without ever suffering a loss.”
With the options being so few at 175, it’s improbable for David Benavidez (23-0, 20 KOs) to take advantage of his #1 ranking with the World Boxing Council at light-heavyweight to face champion Artur Beterbiev. While that would be a great fight, it’s a bad match-up for Benavidez.
It’s safer for Benavidez to stay at 168 if possible because he has the advantage over his opponents in that weight class. However, Benavidez is going to have to work hard to get down in weight if he ways to stay at super middleweight. His management might not be too happy if he keeps missing weight in the future.