By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez WON’T be fighting on September 18th after running out of time on his negotiations with WBA 175-lb champion Dmitry Bivol. Alvarez’s promoter Eddie Hearn revealed the news today that he won’t be fighting on September 18th.
This will be the third year in a row that the former four-division world champion Canelo won’t be fighting on the Mexican Independence Day weekend. We’ll have to see which lucky fighter moves in to snatch that valuable spot.
There had been reports about Canelo wanting a catchweight handicap between 168 and 175 for his title shot against WBA champion Bivol.
If Canelo had agreed to fight Bivol at the normal weight for the division, that might have speeded up the talks.
Asking for a handicap to challenge for Bivol’s title may have slowed things down to a crawl, as the Russian fighter wanted more time to lose the weight.
He wouldn’t have to do that if Canelo had agreed to fight him at the normal 175-lbs for the division. But from Canelo’s standpoint, he maybe he felt he couldn’t win without a weight advantage. It’s kind of odd.
In other sports, you don’t see teams giving handicaps to other teams, but boxing is a different animal.
Alvarez would have likely easily found an opponent for that date if he didn’t waste so much time trying to negotiate a fight with IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant. Their negotiations imploded after the two were unable to an agreement.
Plant complained of Canelo wanting to be paid $40 million, even if he pulled out of the fight and he had to fight a replacement opponent.
Canelo is now planning on returning to the ring in November against a still to be determined opponent.
What’s interesting is that no names were mentioned in terms of who Canelo will be fighting in November, which is a big hint that he has given up on the idea of facing WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (18-0, 11 KOs).
“Talks with Dmitry Bivol were moving along but time ran out for both fighters to hold proper training camps. With no deal in place, Alvarez won’t fight on Mexican Independence Day Weekend for the third consecutive year. It Will be interesting to see who gets the call in November,” said @MikeCoppinger.
Spoke with @Canelo @CANELOTEAM and the team today. Saul is focused on a return to the ring in November. More news soon 👊 🇲🇽 pic.twitter.com/ErgBOxMlRX
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) August 6, 2021
If Canelo chooses not to take the fight with Bivol in November, you can argue that the Mexican superstar ‘saw the light’ and realizes the nothing good could come of mixing it up with the unbeaten champion.
Canelo’s decision not to fight Bivol on September 18th may have saved him from suffering his second career loss.
Bivol would have been a BIG upgrade over the guys that Canelo has been feasting on since 2018. Ultimately, that may have been the problem that wrecked the negotiations.
Asking for a catchweight to fight Bivol with just six weeks of training time, was a pure mess. That’s not enough time to be demanding a catchweight from a world champion.