Canelo a man on a mission: Titles at light heavy, cruiserweight and, yes, heavyweight
After Bivol, Alvarez eyes Beterbiev-Smith winner, Makabu, Usyk
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LAS VEGAS — In late 2020, pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez decided his goal was to become the undisputed super middleweight champion.
So, in 11 months, he marched through the 168-pound division and collected all four belts to achieve the goal while his opponents made career-high purses. No fighter had ever been the undisputed champion in the division, not even in the three-belt era.
He routed Callum Smith in December 2020 to take his WBA belt and the vacant WBC title. After a mandatory defense in February 2021 against Avni Yildirim, whom he obliterated in three one-sided rounds, Alvarez broke Billy Joe Saunders’ face to take his WBO title by eighth-round knockout last May and then wrapped up his historic year with a one-sided 11th-round knockout of Caleb Plant to secure the IBF title.
Now, Alvarez, who previously held a light heavyweight title but vacated, is hunting for the undisputed title in that division, but his goals beyond that. He also has designs on a cruiserweight title and — you’re reading this correctly — a heavyweight title against Oleksandr Usyk down the road.
If he accomplishes it all he would have titles in six divisions from junior middleweight to heavyweight, a run of divisions that has never been done. He would be only the third former middleweight champion to win a heavyweight title, along with Roy Jones Jr. and Bob Fitzsimmons, who did it more than a century ago.
“I’ll fight everybody. I don’t fucking care,” Alvarez said during a free-wheeling session with about a dozen reporters on Wednesday afternoon.
Alvarez begins his light heavyweight quest by challenging Dmitry Bivol for his WBA belt on Saturday (DAZN PPV and PPV.com, 8 p.m. ET) — Cinco de Mayo weekend — at T-Mobile Arena.
Most view Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs), 31, of Russia, as a serious challenge to Alvarez, including the man himself.
“He has everything. He’s a good boxer. He’s a solid champion in 175,” Alvarez said. “I need to do my best to win this fight because he has the stamina for all the rounds, so I need to my best. It’s gonna be a difficult fight.
“For me he is the best in the division. (Unified champion Artur) Beterbiev is a strong fighter, pressure fighter, always goes forward, strong (but) Bivol is a really good fighter. Really good jab, strong, goes in and out. He has everything.”
If Alvarez beats Bivol, there will the third fight with rival Gennadiy Golovkin on Sept. 17 and then the prospect of a December fight.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, who re-signed Alvarez to a two-fight deal with an option for a third fight after he beat Plant, ran through what he thought Alvarez’s schedule might look like over the next year-plus, and it seems reasonable give Alvarez’s desire to stay active.
“I think if he fights in December it most likely will be a mandatory defense of one of his titles and I think the undisputed 175-pound fight will probably come next May,” Hearn told Fight Freaks Unite on Wednesday. “So, I see him fighting Bivol. If he’s victorious, Golovkin. If he’s victorious, healthy and ready to fight (in December), maybe a John Ryder (in a super middleweight mandatory), maybe the winner of (Joshua) Buatsi-(Craig) Richards, maybe a fight in Mexico, and then go into the undisputed 175-pound on Cinco de Mayo next year.”
Alvarez would have one light heavyweight belt if he beats Bivol and then would look to eventually challenge the winner of the three-belt unification fight between Artur Beterbiev and Joe Smith Jr. that is scheduled for June 18.
“I like the idea to be undisputed at 175,” Alvarez said, adding that he won’t be watching Beterbiev-Smith next month. “I don’t want to watch that fight. Whoever wins, fine. The idea is to unify and be undisputed at 175. Whoever. I don’t care.”
After that, Hearn and Alvarez both said fighting for a cruiserweight title is on the to-do list. Late last year, Alvarez manager and trainer Eddy Reynoso went to the WBC convention and received permission to challenge cruiserweight titlist Ilunga Makabu. They went in another direction by making the fight with Bivol, but a Makabu fight remains a long-range plan.
“I like the idea, the possibility,” Alvarez said. “I like it. Next year, maybe.”
If Hearn sets up a Mexican homecoming fight for Alvarez, possibly in December, as he said, he was clear about one thing: They’re going after the all-time boxing attendance record.
It was set when in 1993 when 132,247 turned out to Estadio Azteca in Mexico City for Mexican legend Julio Cesar Chavez’s junior welterweight title defense against Greg Haugen.
Alvarez, who has not boxed in Mexico since a fifth-round shellacking of Kermit Cintron to retain the WBC junior middleweight title in 2011, already owns the United States indoor attendance record of 73,126 set by the fight against Saunders at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“It’s legacy stuff for everybody — for me, for Matchroom, for Saul, of course,” Hearn said, referring to Canelo by his given first name. “For Eddy Reynoso, for everybody. It’s definitely something he wants to do. Can we beat that record now, with the staging and the way seats are put in compared to then, standing and whatever happened that night? We’d like to give it a try. We’re all about making history as well. So is he, and that’s why I think we have a great partnership. I love his mindset and a show in Mexico would be breathtaking.”
As for a potential fight with 6-foot-3 southpaw Usyk, the undefeated former undisputed cruiserweight champion, he would first have to defeat Anthony Joshua in their rematch in July and hang on to the belts.
It might sound like a bridge too far for the 5-8 Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs), 31, who began his career as a 140-pound junior welterweight and won his first world title as a 154-pound junior middleweight, but Hearn has softened his stance after first thinking it was out of the question.
“After the (Joshua)-Usyk fight (last September) I took AJ to see Saul and Eddy Reynoso and the way that Saul was explaining the way to beat Oleksandr Usyk, he made it sound very straight forward,” Hearn said. “And I just said to him, ‘Do you think you could beat Usyk?’ He said, ‘Of course.’ I said, ‘Really?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, if you make that fight at cruiserweight or a pound over (201 pounds), no problem.’ And it’s hard not to believe him.
“I honestly believe AJ will beat Usyk (in the rematch) but if he doesn’t, I think what you do first is you would have a fight at cruiserweight. You’d fight Makabu, you’d fight one those guys, and then you do it from there.”
Alvarez said Usyk is definitely of interest to him.
“He asked, ‘What do you think about a fight with Usyk, the challenge,’” Alvarez said, translating a question from Spanish. “Why not? I like it.”
From the current mission at light heavyweight to cruiserweight and perhaps heavyweight, Alvarez said he is all in and does not see an end to his career for several more years.
“I love boxing. I love what I do,” Alvarez said. “Boxing is part of my life, part of my routine every day. I want to fight all my life. Maybe six, seven more years.”
Photo: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing
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Hmm, IF you truly "don't fkin care" you'd be calling out Fury as well. Methinks you jus wolfin and that's OK for marketing purposes.....but keepin it real you're not remotely competitive with Usyk. This ain't John Ruiz
Reckon he still want Usyk 🙄