Notebook: Canelo explains why he picked DAZN deal, sends message to potential foes

Joshua announces new trainer; Khan interested in rematch with Brook; Kovalev, Meng make new plans; Ali-Frazier I art; Quick hits; Show and tell

Mar 08, 2022

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Pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez knew that whichever deal he picked there would be some who liked his decision and some who didn’t.

Some fans advocated for the deal he accepted from Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn and DAZN — a move back up to light heavyweight to challenge world titlist Dmitry Bivol on May 7 and then the trilogy fight with rival Gennadiy Golovkin back at super middleweight in September, as long as Alvarez beats Bivol and Golovkin handles Ryota Murata in their middleweight unification fight on April 9.

Others would have preferred that Alvarez take the deal presented by Al Haymon of Premier Boxing Champions — a super middleweight defense against middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo, who would move up in weight, on May 7 followed by a September fight with former two-time super middleweight titlist David Benavidez. He would have had to beat former middleweight titlist David Lemieux in their interim title bout on May 21.

Alvarez, who is training for Bivol at his San Diego camp, was on hand for the Matchroom Boxing card on DAZN on Saturday night at Pechanga Arena in San Diego to cheer on his stablemate, Julio Cesar Martinez, in his losing effort to junior bantamweight star Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez.

He took a few minutes to do an interview with DAZN and explained why he picked the deal that he did.

“Because I like this guy here,” Alvarez said, pointing to Hearn. “And I chose Bivol because he’s a great fighter. He’s, for me, the best fighter in 175 and he had something to offer me (a world title). I just want to make history in my career and I’m gonna continue doing it with this guy. He’s a really good fighter. I saw him (fight) many times. He’s really good. He knows what to do in the ring. He has a lot of experience as an amateur. Right now he’s a champion for a long time. I know what kind of fighter he is but I don’t care. I really don’t care. I’m in my prime and I have a lot of skills.”

Alvarez admitted he was less enthusiastic about a third fight with Golovkin. Alvarez is 1-0-1 against him in a pair of tremendously controversial decisions in 2017 and 2018. Past efforts to make the third fight failed.

“I don’t know why now,” Alvarez said. “For me, I think that (two fights) was enough but we got this deal and for me it’s the best deal, so we got the opportunity. I focus 100 percent on Bivol and then we can see, right?”

He did say the fight with Golovkin remains personal given all the bad blood that there has been between them.

“Yeah, it’s personal, because he talks a lot of shit,” Alvarez said. “He talked a lot about me. He’s gonna pay.”

There are others who also want to fight Alvarez, who brings the biggest purse and most potential glory for his opponents. Middleweight titlist Demetrius Andrade, super middleweight contender John Ryder and light heavyweight titleholders Artur Beterbiev and Joe Smith Jr. are just a few of the others angling for a shot at him.

Alvarez is booked through at least September — though the door is open for a December fight — and he had a message for all of his other pursuers.

“I'm busy this year,” Alvarez said. “I’m busy. I’m very busy, so I’m sorry. I know they want a big payday. They want the pay day, but I really don't understand why they don't fight each other. They need to fight each other and then I fight the winner of all of them. I don’t fucking care. “

Joshua makes trainer change

Former two-time unified heavyweight titleholder Anthony Joshua has made the trainer change many expected he would make following the loss of his belts by unanimous decision to underdog Oleksandr Usyk last September on home turf in London.

Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs), 32, spent several week in recent months making the rounds and working with various trainers, including Eddy Reynoso, Robert Garcia, Ronnie Shields and Virgil Hunter in the United States, before making his decision. But he told reporters at a boxing card he attended in London on Saturday night that he has promoted assistant Angel Fernandez, of Spain, to replace Robert McCracken, who had trained Joshua for his entire nine-year career.

“I’m working with Angel Fernandez right now,” Joshua told Behind the Gloves. “He’s been in my camp for the last three years, anyway. He’s been in the last three world championship (fights).”

Fernandez has been part of Joshua’s camp since soon after he lost the belts for the first time to Andy Ruiz Jr. in June 2019 and then won them back in December 2019. Fernandez was also part of Joshua’s camp for his training for his defense against Kubrat Pulev in December 2020 and the loss to Usyk.

It is not clear if McCracken will remain part of his Joshua’s training team, but asked if Fernandez would be his head trainer, Joshua said, “Yeah, man.”

Following the loss to former undisputed cruiserweight champion and mandatory challenger Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs), 35, a southpaw from Ukraine, Joshua exercised his contractual right to an immediate rematch. They were supposed to meet in the late spring or early summer, but it appears likely the fight will be pushed back because Usyk has bigger things on his mind.

Usyk and close friend and former three-division champion Vasiliy Lomachenko have joined a Ukrainian defense battalion as their country defends itself against the unprovoked invasion of neighboring Russia. Understandably, Usyk is not thinking about boxing.

“I really don't know when I'm going to be stepping back in the ring,” Usyk told CNN through an interpreter in a recent interview. “My country and my honor are more important to me than a championship belt.”

Khan rematch with Brook?

The idea of a rematch between longtime British rivals Kell Brook and Amir Khan may seem absurd given the utterly one-sided nature of Brook’s sixth-round knockout of Khan on Feb. 19 in Manchester, England, but Khan apparently is considering invoking his contractual right to an immediate rematch.

Although Khan sounded resigned to retirement right after the loss, Boxxer promoter Ben Shalom said Khan is indeed considering the rematch.

“I think the word on the street is true — Amir Khan, he doesn’t want to call it a day,” Shalom told Sky Sports, his broadcast partner in the United Kingdom, where the fight aired on pay-per-view. “He has spent a lot of time thinking about the fight the past couple of weeks and he feels like he had 10 weeks to prepare and Kell Brook had six months to prepare. So he feels hard done by. I don't know whether that fight is even possible, but he does have that rematch clause.

“But for me, for Kell Brook, it’s time to move on, whether it’s to retire or to fight one of the other names mentioned (such as Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr.). I can’t see it, but Amir is convinced. We will hear what his reasons are in the next few days and we’ll have to take it from there. … Whatever (Khan) does, he’s had a great career. Just for me it probably was the time to hang up the gloves, but he feels very differently.”

After several attempts to make the fight in recent years, they finally met at a contract weight of 149 pounds in a bout that was long awaited by British fans but did not happen until both were way past their best days. Former unified junior welterweight titlist Khan (34-6, 21 KOs), 35, showed nothing but his heart in being torn apart by Brook (40-3, 28 KOs), 35, a former welterweight titlist.

Kovalev, Meng move on

Former unified light heavyweight titlist Sergey Kovalev and Meng Fanlong have gone their separate ways and will not face each other in a 188-pound fight in the main event of a Triller Fight Club card that was being planned first for March 12, then early April and then May 14.

The fight was agreed to in late January but Triller shifted dates and then did not finalize the deal, leaving it hanging for more than a month, at which point Meng elected to go in another direction, multiple sources told Fight Freaks Unite.

The plan is still for Kovalev to fight another opponent, tentatively on May 14, on a Triller card. Meng will instead fight at light heavyweight on a card his promoter, Probox, is planning for May 20 in Plant City, Florida. According to one of the sources, Meng, who signed with Probox last summer, may face former light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal.

Kovalev (34-4-1, 29 KOs), 38, a Russia native fighting out of Santa Monica, California, has not fought since Canelo Alvarez moved up from middleweight to light heavyweight and spectacularly knocked him out in the 11th round to take his world title in November 2019.

Kovalev was scheduled to fight Sullivan Barrera in April 2020 in the main event of a Golden Boy card on DAZN, but the event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Then he was due to fight then-unbeaten prospect Bektemir “Bek Bully” Melikuziev at 178 pounds in January 2021, in Indio, California, but the show was canceled when Kovalev tested positive for synthetic testosterone in a sample given to the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association.

Meng (17-0, 10 KOs), a 34-year-old Chinese southpaw, who trains in New Jersey, was the mandatory challenger for light heavyweight titlist Artur Beterbiev but due to the pandemic and visa issues he never got the fight.

Pascal (35-6-1, 20 KOs), 39, of Montreal, has not fought since a split decision win over Badou Jack to retain his secondary title in December 2019. They were scheduled to meet in a rematch last June, but the fight was canceled and Pascal was stripped after he tested positive for four different banned substances in various random pre-fight VADA tests.

Ali-Frazier I artwork

Last March 8 was the 50-year anniversary of perhaps the biggest fight in boxing history, the legendary first battle between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier for the heavyweight championship. They were both undefeated, both had claims to the title and their showdown captivated the world.

In honor of the 50th anniversary, renowned artist Richard Slone painted the two fighters in action — Frazier knocking Ali down in the 15th round. It is a gorgeous and colorful painting that was used for a cover of The Ring magazine commemorating the anniversary.

Noted art collector Ingo Wegerich purchased Slone’s original painting for his tremendous boxing collection. Photos of the painting are on his website along with text he asked me to write about the famed fight. The Ali-Frazier I painting is just one of numerous fantastic pieces of original boxing art in his collection. It is definitely worth taking a look at, especially the Ali-Frazier piece. You can view the collection here: https://wegerich-fineart.com/en/ingo-wegerich-fine-art-collection/

Quick hits

The WBA on Monday ordered an immediate rematch of the junior middleweight title eliminator between Israil Madrimov (8-0, 6 KOs), 27, of Uzbekistan, and Michel Soro (35-3-1, 24 KOs), 34, of France. They have 30 days to make a deal or there will be a purse bid. If it goes to a purse bid the split is 50-50. The rematch was ordered because of the way their Dec. 17 eliminator in Uzbekistan ended — with Madrimov stopping Soro in the ninth round but doing so with a series of punches way after the bell ended the round, which the referee claimed he did not hear. Soro protested and was granted a rematch.

Lightweight prospect Marc Castro (6-0, 5 KOs), 22, of Fresno, California, will return on the Canelo Alvarez-Dmitry Bivol undercard on May 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Castro manager Keith Connolly told Fight Freaks Unite. Castro has trained in Alvarez’s gym and is friendly with him and his team. He will be boxing on his fourth Alvarez undercard. Fighting on the Roman Gonzalez-Julio Cesar Martinez undercard on Saturday night in San Diego, Castro won a unanimous decision (58-55 on all three scorecards) over Julio Madera in going the distance for the first time. He also got knocked down for the first time in the second round.

Cuban junior middleweight prospect Yoelvis Gomez (5-0, 5 KOs), 24, a southpaw based in Las Vegas, suffered a hand injury that has forced him to postpone his fight with Jorge Cota (30-5, 27 KOs), 34, of Mexico, according to a BoxingScene report. The fight was slated to open a Showtime card on March 26 headlined by the Tim Tszyu-Terrell Gausha junior middleweight bout at The Armory in Minneapolis.

Show and tell

Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, towering figures whose names are linked forever because of their legendary trilogy, both were undefeated with claims to the heavyweight championship when they met in the “The Fight,” which captivated the world. Their first fight, at famed Madison Square Garden in New York, was one of the most hyped events in the history of sports and, incredibly, it lived up to the sky-high expectations. They produced an instant classic that Frazier won by unanimous decision punctuated by a memorable knockdown in the 15th round. Ali would win their next two fights but neither was a bigger or more important fight than what took place on March 8, 1971 — 51 years ago on Tuesday. Here are three items in my collection:

First up is the official program, which was sold at the Garden on fight night for $1.50 and goes for a LOT more today! I spent years looking for one in tip-top condition and finally found this one in 2017. It looks like it just rolled off the press. It is in near-pristine shape and one of the centerpieces of my program collection which numbers in the thousands.

Next is simply one of the coolest, most interesting pieces in my entire collection. It is a gorgeous glass candy dish from the fight that was given to media members covering it. As a media member, I found this to be a must-have item. (No, I didn’t cover the fight. I was six months old.) The image on the dish is the same as the one on the site poster. While I have yet to drop the roughly $4,000 it would take to buy a nice site poster, I was happy to spend about $225 for the dish at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Baltimore in 2012.

Finally, here is a card commemorating the fight from the 2020 Topps Heritage card set. It is part of the “Flashbacks” insert set depicting big events from 1971. No sports event was bigger than the fight that year. The image on the card is the moment Frazier knocked Ali down. It’s also a lot cheaper than the program or the dish. When the set came out, I bought a bunch of them for about $1 apiece on eBay.

Alvarez photo: Melina Pizano/Matchroom Boxing; Joshua photo: Ian Walton/Matchroom Boxing; Khan photo: Lawrence Lustig/Boxxer; Kovalev photo: Main Events

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