By Huck Allen: Canelo Alvarez has rejected a two-fight, $100 million offer from Premier Boxing Champions [PBC] to face Jermall Charlo on May 7th and David Benavidez on September 17th.
It’s reported that Canelo is working with Matchroom & DAZN for their two-fight deal to battle Dmitry Bivol and Gennadiy Golovkin.
What’s surprising is the Matchroom deal is believed to be $20 million less than the $100 million that PBC is offering for Canelo to face Charlo and Benavidez in 2022.
Matchroom’s deal is reported to be in the mid-$80 million range, but both fights are winnable for Canelo against Bivol and 40-year-old Golovkin.
For Canelo to be turning down a more extensive offer that would see him get PPV upside, it suggests that there are some doubts on his part that he can get through those fights [Charlo & Benavidez without taking a loss or two.
Initially, the offer PBC had made to Canelo was a one-fight deal in which he could face Jermall Charlo for $45 million, but then they added a second fight to the deal with the addition of David Benavidez.
Given Canelo’s reluctance to fight Benavidez, PBC may have shot themselves in the foot by doing that.
Without the Benavidez fight, Canelo might have accepted the deal because Jermall Charlo has looked beatable, and a fight against him would make a lot of money.
“Sources: PBC offered Canelo Alvarez a two-fight deal worth upward of $100 million guaranteed for bouts with Jermall Charlo and David Benavidez in May & September, respectively, but that package was rejected by Alvarez about ten days ago, and there has been no dialogue with PBC since.
“With talks completely broken off, Canelo has been focused on completing the deal with Matchroom for fights with Dmitry Bivol and GGG,” said Mike Coppinger on Twitter.
Just because Canelo rejected the $100 million offer from PBC doesn’t mean that the deal can’t happen.
Suppose PBC wants the Canelo deal badly enough. In that case, they’ll sweeten the offer or make changes to it by substituting Anthony Dirrell in place of Benavidez, considering he’s likely the deal-breaker.
Canelo wants to make a lot of money, obviously, but he also wants to ensure that he keeps winning.
If he faces the 25-year-old Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs), it could all come tumbling down with him potentially losing by a knockout to the young gun.
Canelo is a great fighter, but we’ve seen in his last four fights that his work rate has dropped off due to age & ring wear.
If Canelo goes in there with a fighter with Benavidez’s high-powered offense, he’s likely to be outgunned in the same way a primitive colonial war soldier with his flintlock rifles facing a modern soldier equipped with M16s and M60 machineguns.
As good as Canelo is, he would be overmatched by the weaponry of Benavidez, and it wouldn’t be pretty as far as he was concerned.
It’s telling that Canelo would be willing to turn down a more significant offer from PBC to take a smaller one from PBC.
It’s evident that Canelo doesn’t have faith that he can beat Benavidez, and I don’t think he can.
The potshotting style that Canelo uses nowadays isn’t going to work against the withering heavy folly machinegun fire from Benavidez, and he won’t last long in that kind of a battle.
If Canelo had legs and an ability to move around the ring to avoid Benavidez’s bombing raids, he would have a chance against him, but alas, he doesn’t. Canelo is a plodder who walks guys down, throwing single shots with 100% power.
Benavidez would be carpet bombing Canelo and he couldn’t stand up to those types of pounding attacks for long.
That style has worked against the limited, fragile-chinned fighters that Canelo has fought during the last four years, but it would be ineffective against Benavidez. Canelo and likely his clever trainer Eddy Reynoso know that.
