LAS VEGAS – Canelo Alvarez reiterated that he eventually wants to avenge his loss to Dmitry Bivol.
According to Alvarez, he would’ve boxed Bivol again Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena if not for the contractual commitment he made before he battled Bivol on May 7 to square off against Gennadiy Golovkin for the third time. DAZN committed a massive amount of money in guarantees to Alvarez and Golovkin for them to finally fight again, thus Alvarez will have to try to secure a second shot at Bivol at a later date.
“I really wanted the rematch in September,” Alvarez told a group of reporters Wednesday at MGM Grand. “
But Eddie Hearn said we have the contract to fight Golovkin in September and we need to do that fight. So, that’s why we are here. And I’m happy.”
Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing is Alvarez’s promoter at the moment and has an exclusive content agreement with DAZN. Alvarez returned to DAZN, which by Saturday night will have streamed seven of his past eight fights, after stopping previously unbeaten IBF super middleweight champ Caleb Plant in the 11th round of a Showtime Pay-Per-View main event last November 6 at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Alvarez (57-2-2, 39 KOs) insisted that fighting Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) to complete their trilogy isn’t an indication that he doesn’t want to move back up to the light heavyweight division again to challenge Russia’s Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) for his WBA belt.
“I really want it,” Alvarez said, “but ultimately my team and I decided to fight Golovkin.”
Hearn emphasized during the aforementioned group interview that Alvarez “also signed an agreement to fight Gennadiy Golovkin.”
Alvarez added that he’ll pay close attention to Bivol’s mandated title defense against Gilberto Ramirez (44-0, 30 KOs) on November 5 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Guadalajara’s Alvarez admitted that he’ll root for his countryman to beat Bivol in another 12-round main event DAZN will stream.
“We’ll see,” Alvarez said. “[Bivol] need to win first, but I want [a rematch] sooner or later. I think we need to see what happen in that fight first, with ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez. I want ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez to win, so we’ll see. We’ll see. I’m 100-percent focused on this fight, and then we’ll see.”
Alvarez, 32, and Golovkin, 40, will fight for Alvarez’s IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles in this DAZN Pay-Per-View main event ($64.99 for subscribers; $84.99 for non-subscribers). Four years after winning their middleweight championship rematch by majority decision, Alvarez is listed by most sportsbooks as at least a 5-1 favorite to beat Golovkin again.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
