By Jake Donovan
Boxing fans won’t get to see Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez any time soon in the one middleweight fight that most in the industry craved to witness, but can at least expect to see more of him in 2016.
As the dust continues to settle on failed plans for a desired showdown with unbeaten, unified middleweight titlist Gennady Golovkin, Alvarez and his team continue to map out the future. Next up for the red-headed boxing superstar from Mexico – who turns 26 on July 18 – is a return to the 154-pound division, where he will face undefeated beltholder Liam Smith from England.
The bout is due to take place September 17, likely at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, as Golden Boy Promotions has a hold on the venue for the date. Alvarez (47-1-1, 33KOs) will contend for his third title at that weight, having fought just outside the division since his championship-losing effort to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013.
Each of his past five ring appearances have come at a maximum catchweight of 155-pounds, including his World middleweight championship-lifting victory over Miguel Cotto last November.
His upcoming showdown with Smith (23-0-1, 13KOs) – who fights outside of the UK for the first time in his career – will come at the regular super welterweight limit of 154 pounds, with HBO Pay-Per-View to distribute the event. With a win, his next ring appearance could come one pound north – and without a long wait or an a la carte price tag.
Rumors have swirled of Alvarez potentially returning on December 10. While the specifics have yet to be nailed down (location or weight, although speculated to take place at middleweight), the strong indication is that it will air live on HBO’s flagship network, as opposed to PPV.
Representatives from Golden Boy and HBO have denied official comment. However, BoxingScene.com has learned through sources that such a move – should they opt to go that route – can be accommodated, a major factor given the budget restraints around which HBO has been forced to navigate for much of the year.
Should those plans materialize, it will mark Alvarez’ second appearance on HBO Prime since returning to and signing an exclusive network deal with the American cable giant in 2014.
His first fight under contract came last May, when he iced James Kirkland in the 3rd round of a main event that generated more than 2.1 million viewers. The staggering number serves as the most watched live cable TV bout since 2006 and – along with the 30,000 in attendance at Minute Maid Park in Houston – gave the U.S. boxing scene its next big star, confirmed by the 930,000 PPV units sold for his win over Cotto last November.
Some of the bloom has been knocked off the rose in 2016, given the choices Alvarez’ team has made in and out of the ring. The win over Cotto was supposed to come with the responsibility of a mandatory title defense versus Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs). Instead, the two sides negotiated terms that called for one interim bout before discussing terms for a head-on collision that would easily serve to be made in today’s current boxing landscape.
Alvarez went on to face Amir Khan, knocking the Brit out cold in the 6th round of the first-ever boxing event at the newly erected T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas this past May. The HBO PPV-headlined affair came two weeks after Gennady Golovkin demolished unbeaten but overmatched Dominic Wade in two rounds of their HBO-aired middleweight title fight in late April.
Talks were to follow immediately thereafter, but all that came of the situation… was talk.
Alvarez and promoter Oscar de la Hoya made bold suggestions on air and through the media of charging full force towards Golovkin and his slew of belts. Those bold claims died down first with his vacating the WBC middleweight belt – which went to Golovkin by default – and then enduring a trial with estranged promoter All-Star Boxing that was six years in the making.
Upon completion of the trial – in which Alvarez was ordered to pay All-Star Boxing $8.5 million due to “unjust enrichment” in his untimely defection from the Florida-based promoter to Golden Boy Promotions – was supposed to come renewed negotiations for the aforementioned middleweight affair.
Instead came confirmation that they would not fight until at least September 2017, met with the suggestion from de la Hoya of a “verbal agreement” in place for such a bout to occur.
At least three bouts are being planned between now and then, beginning with Smith in September. Should he win and then fight in December, it will mark the first time since 2011 that Alvarez will have made three ring appearances in a calendar year.
None of the bouts will have been versus Golovkin, but at the very least it’s a return to a rate of activity once enjoyed by the boxing star who can stand the good news – and press – for a change.
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Follow his shiny new Twitter account: @JakeNDaBox_v2
