Canelo Alvarez is set to take on Dmitry Bivol on May 7, then scheduled to take on Gennadiy Golovkin in September
By: Hans Themistode
Canelo Alvarez raved about Al Haymon’s fight deal worth up to $100 million to buy both Jermall Charlo and David Benavidez. However, in the end, the Mexican star found Eddie Hearn’s offer a bit too attractive.
As first reported by ESPN, Alvarez has officially put his name on the dotted line to face WBA lightweight champion Dmitry Bivol for the first time on May 7. Then, if Alvarez stripped of his world title Bivol, the Mexican star will lose weight to defend his undisputed super-middleweight throne against longtime rival, Gennadiy Golovkin.
Golovkin’s side in the deal is expected to be based on the 39-year-old’s victory over WBA middleweight player Ryota Murata. Initially, Golovkin had hoped to swap fists with Murata by the end of 2021. But, in what has become a consistent and undesirable pattern, their contest was canceled due to COVID-19 circumstances- 19 increased in Japan, Murata’s hometown and original destination where their contest was set to take place.
While both Benavidez and Charlo are now officially out of the equation, at least for a moment, both Bivol and Golovkin are eagerly awaiting their chance. Over the years, Bivol has boldly called for a match against Alvarez, even saying he would drop to his 168-pound super-middleweight limit to appease the Mexican-born.
After an inactive 2020 where Bivol remained absent on the sidelines, he made two successful defenses of his WBA belt in 2021 against Craig Richards and Umar Salamov.
In Golovkin’s case, although he is looking forward to improving his wallet with a third match against Alvarez, the current IBF middleweight champion believes their three-part series should end after the match. second match. In September of the close years in 2017 and 2018, Golovkin believes he has been awarded a rough contract. While he learned to live with the decisive split and the majority defeat he was handed, Golovkin was quietly trying to lure Alvarez back into the ring.
Meanwhile, Alvarez has focused his attention elsewhere, aggregating every world title at 168 pounds ahead of Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant to become the tournament’s first-ever champion.
Although Golovkin spent most of his violent career at 160 pounds, he agreed to take on Alvarez as the 168 pounder. While it will be the first time in Golovkin’s career that he has fought in a different weight class, he fought over 160 pounds with Steve Rolls in 2019 in the 164 pound contract catch-up weight class, where Golovkin officially broke through to weight class 163. In the end, Golovkin blew up Rolls in the third round and would continue his streak of three consecutive wins since his loss to Alvarez.
