By Luke Furman
WBO light heavyweight champion Eleider Alvarez (24-0, 12 KOs) is a very hot commodity.
Alvarez appeared on HBO back in August, when he pulled off a stunning seven round knockout of Sergey Kovalev to capture the WBO title in Atlantic City.
There is a rematch scheduled for February 2nd in Texas, with ESPN televising the bout.
Earlier this month, HBO made their unexpected decision to remove boxing from their programming schedule.
That decision has left several high profile free agents - and Alvarez is one of them.
With Alvarez's next contest taking place on ESPN, the network - through their exclusive content partner Top Rank - is attempting to secure a multi-fight deal with the boxer.
They are not alone. Streaming service DAZN is moving on Alvarez, and so is Premier Boxing Champions - which has content deals with Showtime and FOX.
"ESPN is interested in putting Eleider under a long-term contract and negotiations are under way," said Alvarez's promoter, Yvon Michel, to The Montreal Journal.
"But we must also analyze offers from DAZN and PBC. On the other hand, Alvarez will fight in Quebec for his next fight if he beats Kovalev in February, regardless of the network."
In terms of future opponents - PBC, which is run by Alvarez's adviser Al Haymon, has potential opponents such as Badou Jack, Marcus Browne and WBC champion Adonis Stevenson - should he beat Oleksandr Gvodyk.
As far as DAZN, IBF champion Artur Beterbiev is Alvarez's stablemate and the share the same trainer. ESPN has Gvozdyk, should he beat Stevenson.
But all of these offers won't mean much if Alvarez loses the rematch - and he really wants to do a job on Kovalev for his post-fight comments.
"When he discussed the fight, he never gave me credit for my victory. It will serve as a source of motivation for my next camp. I will arrange it, where I'm his last opponent. If he thinks it was a fluke, he'll have a second fluke on February 2nd."
Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org
