The famous Mexican star Canelo Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) and his manager/trainer Eddy Reynoso have signed for a two-fight deal with a potential third fight in the works with Matchroom Boxing and DAZN.
The total three-fight package is priced at 160 million on DAZN. All three of these contests will be shown on DAZN pay-per-view, which won’t make many fans happy.
DAZN subscribers will need to shell out potentially $180 to watch Canelo Alvarez’s three fights on the platform in 2022. Will fans be willing to pay that amount of money to watch Canelo fight on PPV?
It’s fair to say that many fans will feel betrayed, as they thought pay-per-view was a thing of the past when they subscribed to DAZN.
The first fight of the two-fight deal for Canelo will be against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) on May 7th on PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
If Gennady Golovkin wins his next fight in April, he’ll face Canelo for their trilogy match in September. However, at this point, it’s still too early to know if the Canelo-Golovkin will take place because both fighters still need to win their interim fights before they can meet up in September.
Golovkin, 39, will need to defeat WBA 160lb champion Ryota Murata in April to fill the slot to face Canelo on September 17th.
If given a choice, fans would prefer to see Canelo fight Golovkin first, but that can’t happen because the Kazakhstan fighter signed a contract to face Murata in a unification fight. As long as Golovkin wins that fight, he’ll face Canelo in September.
According to Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn, the third fight for Canelo in December will be Ilunga Makabu or John Ryder. While some boxing fans will see those two as unworthy of
For DAZN subscribers accustomed to watching boxing as part of their monthly subscription, they’re not going to be pleased having to shell out $60 to watch Canelo fight on PPV against Bivol, Golovkin, and possibly Makabu.
It would be a bad idea for Canelo and Reynoso to be looking past Bivol because this is going to be a tough fight for them.
If Canelo had fought Bivol three to four years ago when he was fighting at a higher level, it would be slightly easier to fight, but not now.
Canelo and Reynoso have carefully picked their opposition since 2018, fighting belt holders, but marginal ones. Some fans think Canelo has chosen his opposition for easy paydays while avoiding the riskier opposition.
Bivol is a big step up in class for Canelo to be fighting Bivol compared to his recent opponents Caleb Plant, Billy Joe Saunders, and Avni Yildirim. Those guys were marginal at best and had no chance of beating Canelo.
Bivol is a fighter that Canelo should have fought three years ago when he moved up to 175 to capture his fourth division title. Instead of fighting Bivol or Artur Beterbiev for their titles, Canelo picked Sergey Kovalev, who had nothing left in the tank by that point in his career.
“I always only wanted to fight the best!” said Bivol. “I believe that the rest of my goals will begin materialize on May 7!”
“Canelo is the golden goose of the sport, and he can pick whoever he wants and make that guy rich or richer,” said Teddy Atlas on his channel.
“I give him credit. He picked a dangerous guy [Bivol], a guy with a good amateur background,” said Atlas about Canelo choosing to fight Bivol.
“He’s picked a guy that I’ve already said is naturally bigger, and he’s a good technical fighter, a solid boxer. He can fight with you, but he likes to box; he’s a smart, cerebral guy. He’s really good, and he picked him.
“There are going to be guys that say that ‘Charlo was going to whoop him.’ I don’t know if Charlo didn’t want the fight. What I do know is he picked Bivol, and that’s going to be an interesting fight,” said Atlas.
