By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Eddie Hearn isn’t insulted nor surprised that Canelo Alvarez’s handlers didn’t request a rematch clause during negotiations for the Alvarez-Rocky Fielding fight.
“I just think that two things – one, they expect to win,” Hearn, Fielding’s promoter, told BoxingScene.com following a press conference Wednesday in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. “Two is if they lose, they’ll probably move back to middleweight and defend the belts there. And three, Rocky Fielding is a world champion. So it’s not something, really, that you naturally ask for.”
Alvarez is the challenger, yet clearly the ‘A’ side of this promotion. Rematch clauses often are used in contracts for fights featuring a heavily favored star.
Handicappers have installed Alvarez as at least a 14-1 favorite over the bigger Fielding, despite that the Mexican superstar has agreed to fight at the super middleweight limit of 168 pounds for the first time in his 13-year pro career.
After defeating Gennady Golovkin by majority decision in their 12-round middleweight championship rematch September 15 in Las Vegas, the 28-year-old Alvarez owns the WBA and WBC middleweight titles. Having those titles gives him leverage to move back down eight pounds should Fielding upset him.
Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KOs) and England’s Fielding (27-1, 15 KOs), the WBA world super middleweight champion, will headline a card December 15 at Madison Square Garden.
That scheduled 12-round bout will mark the beginning of the five-year, 11-fight deal Alvarez and Golden Boy Promotions have signed with DAZN. Their deal with the well-funded streaming service could be worth as much as $365 million.
Hearn joked that DAZN should pay Fielding the remainder of Alvarez’s contract if the Liverpool native beats his heavily favored opponent. The British promoter suspects money was another factor in Alvarez’s team at Golden Boy Promotions not inserting a rematch clause into their contracts.
“I think they expect to win,” Hearn said. “And also, we’d ask for so much money [for a rematch], you know?”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
