Earlier this week, media reports surfaced outlining the two offers waiting at the proverbial doorstep of unified super middleweight champ Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
Offer number one is from Al Haymon and Premier Boxing Champions (PBC). It’s a one-fight deal to face Jermall Charlo on Cinco de Mayo weekend. Presumably, Charlo, the WBC middleweight champ, would move up in weight to face Alvarez for his four belts in the 168 lb. division.
Offer number two is a two-fight deal with Eddie Hearn and DAZN. It would involve Alvarez moving up to light heavyweight for a shot at Dmitry Bivol’s WBA title on Cinco de Mayo weekend and then a revisiting of his rivalry with Gennadiy Golovkin on Mexican Independence Day weekend in September.
Both deals offer financial reward and heavy clout when it comes to the Mexican’s already hefty body of work. Both also have a downside or two.
With the Haymon/PBC deal, Alvarez would have what he seems to want most of all-- flexibility and self-determination when it comes to future career options. With this one-fight deal, Alvarez would be free to move on and consider other options after facing Charlo. If the fight is a classic or an exceptionally successful pay-per-view, he can opt to have the rematch with no business hassle entanglements whatsoever. In Charlo, he’ll also have a B-side who’s good on the mic and can help sell the fight to the public. Competitively, critics might seize on to the fact that Charlo would be moving up in weight and that in his last fight, against the unheralded Juan Macias Montiel, he didn’t look all that spectacular.
With the Hearn/DAZN plan, Alvarez would be tied to the wannabe Netflix of sports for a full year, unable to explore other options without considerable politicking and/or legal effort. Dmitry Bivol, while a legitimate and intriguing challenge, has zero charisma, delivers zero buzz, and doesn’t speak English. A third fight with Golovkin would do outstanding business (probably bringing in more buys than any other option for Canelo), but Alvarez has so much bad blood for the Kazakh (and a stated desire to never put another dime in his pocket) that it’s hard to see him sharing the main stage with Triple G ever again.
On the plus side of the Hearn/DAZN deal, however, is that both fights are attractive from a competitive standpoint. But, then again, so is the Charlo fight. Charlo is in his physical prime and is a skilled, patient, disciplined boxer-puncher by nature. Bivol is also skilled and in his physical prime, but is less flexible in style and temperament. Golovkin is still a very adept offensive fighter, but will be 40 by the time he’d be able to face Canelo. There’s a legitimate debate to be had over whether Charlo, Bivol, or Golovkin would present the greater challenge to the Mexican superstar.
Alvarez has been a free agent since 2020, leveraging his way out of an 11-fight deal with DAZN after just three fights. He would then sign into one-fight arrangement with the streaming service for a bout with Callum Smith in December of 2020 and re-up for a two-fight deal, taking on Avni Yildirim and Billy Joe Saunders in 2021. For his November 2021 bout with Caleb Plant, Alvarez signed a one-fight deal with PBC for a Showtime PPV event that reportedly generated over 800,000 buys.