Canelo Alvarez signs 2-fight deal with Eddie Hearn

By Boxing News - 01/21/2021 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Eddie Hearn has announced the signing of Canelo Alvarez to a two-fight deal with Matchroom Boxing beginning with his February 27th defense against Avni Yildirim. Both of Canelo’s fights on the two-fight contract with Hearn will be shown live on DAZN.

This is a showcase fight for Canelo that he specifically asked from the WBC. He’s going to have to look exceptional for him not to be dumped on.

As the WBC Franchise champion, Canelo doesn’t need to make this fight with Yildirim. He doesn’t have to make title defenses for his WBC title, but he asked the WBC for this.

Canelo wasn’t volunteering to defend his WBC title against Jermall Charlo when he was his mandatory. But all of a sudden, when the mandatory is Yildirim, Canelo all in for that fight. What’s different about Charlo and Yildirim?

Eddie Hearn has the two biggest stars in boxing

Adding Canelo Alvarez to the Matchroom team means Hearn now has the two biggest stars in Anthony Joshua and Alvarez’s boxing.  Even if Canelo is only with Hearn for two fights, it’s still a big deal.

Image: Canelo Alvarez signs 2-fight deal with Eddie Hearn

Having Canelo will help Hearn sign other popular fighters, and that’ll make his promotional company even bigger.

The second fight of the two-fight contract for WBA/WBC/Ring super middleweight champion Canelo (54-1-2, 36 KOs) will probably be against WBO champ Billy Joe Saunders unless he messes up the negotiations.

You can’t put it past Saunders (30-0, 14 KOs) to flub up the negotiations for the Alvarez fight by some technicality, be it training time, money, or whatever.

But if Billy Joe doesn’t get in the way of the fight getting made, he’ll be the next one for Alvarez in May on the Cinco de Mayo holiday.

That fight will likely take place wherever crowds are allowed to attend in the U.S, which could mean Florida or Texas.

Hearn will need to extend his contract with Canelo if he wants to be a part of his fight against unbeaten IBF super middleweight champion Caleb ‘Sweethands’ Plant (20-0, 12 KOs) for September.

That fight will be for the undisputed 168-pound championship on the Mexican Independence Day holiday.

Hearn announces two-fight deal with Canelo

 

The signing by Hearn of Saunders is looked at differently from the fans’ perspective. Canelo’s signing is a big deal for British boxing fans, as they want to see the Mexican superstar take on Billy Joe Saunders in a unification fight.

But in the eyes of the U.S fans, they’re harder to please and aren’t excited at seeing Canelo sign a two-fight deal to fight Avni Yildirim and Saunders.

Image: Canelo Alvarez signs 2-fight deal with Eddie Hearn

The American boxing fans view those are soft fights for Canelo, and they’ve already seen too many mismatches involving the former Golden Boy star over the years.

They want to see some real meat & potatoes level fights involving Canelo fighting Jermall Charlo, David Benavidez, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Demetrius Andrade.

Getting Canelo to fight any of those guys could prove to be near impossible at this point, as he appears to have become risk-averse ever since his grueling rematch with Golovkin in 2018.

Canelo was hurt a couple of times in that fight and took a lot out of him. Ever since that fight, Canelo has not shown the desire to get in with anyone good.

Golovkin seemingly has taken away Canelo’s ambition from that fight, seeing that he’s not shown any motivation to take on the best since.

These are Canelo’s fights since his rematch with GGG in 2018:

  • Rocky Fielding
  • Daniel Jacobs
  • Sergey Kovalev
  • Callum Smith

Alvarez needs to face better opposition

It’s too bad that Canelo’s two fights with hearn will be against Yildirim and Saunders rather than one of the high-caliber super middleweights in the division.

Image: Canelo Alvarez signs 2-fight deal with Eddie Hearn

Boxing fans would be ecstatic to see Canelo risk his hide facing David Benavidez, Jermall Charlo, Demetrius Andrade, Egar Berlanga, or Golovkin.

For the fans that argue that Jacobs and Kovalev count as good fighters, I’m afraid I have to disagree. Jacobs and Kovalev are both over-the-hill fighters, living off their accomplishments from 1000+ yesterday’s ago.

Go back and watch Jacobs’s fight against Gabe Rosado and Kovalev’s matches against Anthony Yarde and Andre Ward. Rocky Fielding and Callum Smith were terribly flawed fighters, who were basically belt-holders, AKA paper champions.

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Even if Saunders were from the U.S, the American boxing fans wouldn’t be interested in seeing the fight. They know quality when they see it, and they’re not going to get out their pom-poms and cheer for Saunders.