By Dan Ambrose: Canelo Alvarez has come to an agreement to face unbeaten Callum Smith in December on DAZN in Texas. ESPN Deportes is reporting the news of Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) and WBA Super World super middleweight champion Smth (27-0, 19 KOs) reaching a deal for a fight that could be taking place on December 19th at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Callum, 30, would have a chance to exact revenge against Canelo for knocking out his older brother, former WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith in September 2016 at AT&T Stadium.
Liam gave Canelo problems for the first six rounds before running out of gas and getting knocked out.
Alvarez coming off of a one-year layoff
Canelo, 30, will be fighting for the first time in over a year since his win over WBO light-heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev last year in November.
Callum and Canelo fight for the WBA 168-lb strap, Ring Magazine belt, and potentially the WBC Franchise title. Smith would need to petition the World Boxing Council to ask them to have Canelo’s Franchise belt up for grabs for their fight.
Recently, Canelo was said to be in negotiations for a fight against IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant, but it’s believed there wasn’t enough time to promote the contest properly.
Callum Smith would be Canelo’s first fight as a free agent since leaving DAZN and Golden Boy Promotions. Canelo would be returning to DAZN to fight, but he wouldn’t be signed to them as he’d been since 2018.
Back then, Canelo signed an 11-fight, $365 million deal. However, after just three fights with them, Canelo left DAZN after initiating a lawsuit against them and Golden Boy.
With Canelo now his own promoter, there’s a good chance that he’ll fight several of Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing fighters. These guys are likely future opponents for Canelo:
- Billy Joe Saunders
- John Ryder
- Caleb Plant – with Premier Boxing Champions
If Canelo wants to be brave, he can fight Dmitry Bivol, because he’s with Matchroom too, and he’s willing to come down to 168 for a big fight.
Callum Smith one of the best 168-lb fighters
While Callum isn’t popular in the United States, he’s one of the better super middleweights in the division. For a brief period of time, Callum was viewed by some boxing fans as the #1 fighter in the 168-lb division.
That perception changed after Callum’s controversial 12 round decision win over John Ryder last year in November in Liverpool, England.
The opinion of the fans is that Ryder deserved the win, and Smith was given a hometown decision. Since that fight, the fans have viewed Callum as a flawed fighter, and not as good as they originally thought.
On the Canelo vs. Smith undercard, WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez is expected to fight in a title defense. There’s also a possibility that lightweights Ryan Garcia and Luke Campbell could be put on the undercard.