As the deadline approaches for Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to announce his next fight, one pressing detail was clarified on Monday.
If the Mexican wants to return to fight on Mexican Independence weekend, he won’t be in pay-per-view competition with Conor McGregor.
The UFC’s president Dana White told BoxingScene on Monday that the popular former two-division champion McGregor will not be placed on the UFC’s debut card at the Las Vegas Sphere on September 14.
While boxing and UFC fans often remain loyal to their respective fighting disciplines, the potential for combat and mainstream sports fans to have their investment divided was raised while both McGregor and Alvarez plotted their next fight dates.
In a nod to maximizing pay-per-view buys, Alvarez previously allowed a 2019 UFC main event to finish before he took to the ring that night and stopped the then-light-heavyweight-champion Sergey Kovalev.
McGregor bowed out of his planned June 29 UFC main event with a broken toe, and there was speculation that he could further boost the intrigue over the Sphere card by returning there for his first fight since July 2021. McGregor’s return date remains unfinalized.
White has touted the Sphere event as one of the most appealing his organization has ever staged at the cinematic venue that has already hosted a U2 residency. Incidentally, another, by the Eagles, is coming in September.
He also said that he expects to announce the UFC’s September 14 main event “soon.”
A boxing official connected to talks with Alvarez said that the undisputed super-middleweight champion has discussed three dates – September 7, September 14 and early October – and is most likely going to bring his next fight to Vegas.
By going in September, Alvarez increases his chances of making a third fight this year amid rumors in boxing circles that he could bring a showdown against Terence Crawford to the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, late in the fourth quarter of 2024.
That card, according to a boxing industry official, would be influenced by Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh, whose Riyadh Season is also sponsoring the August 3 card in LA at the downtown LAFC soccer stadium.
An individual close to Crawford told BoxingScene on Monday that the unbeaten three-division champion understands that his August 3 win a world title in a fourth division, against the WBA junior-middleweight champion Israil Madrimov, is also a live audition to prove himself worthy of a shot at Alvarez, who turns 34 on Thursday.
The individual said that he sees Alvarez as a more likely next opponent for Crawford than Jaron “Boots” Ennis, and added that the expectation is that Alvarez is basing his decision on Crawford on how the August 3 main event plays out.
“I’m sure [Alvarez] will” be watching, the individual said.
Alvarez’s manager and trainer Eddy Reynoso told BoxingScene before Alvarez’s victory on Cinco de Mayo weekend over Jaime Munguia that he expects to work again, for his next fight, with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions and Amazon Prime Video pay-per-view.
The believed front runner for Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs) is his World Boxing Association mandatory challenger Edgar Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) – an unbeaten power-puncher from Brooklyn providing the necessary Puerto Rican ancestry to revive the Mexico-Puerto Rico rivalry and to bring a style ripe for an all-action fight, and likely a knockout.
Alvarez is believed to have struck an agreement to postpone his more pressing mandatory against the IBF’s number one contender William Scull, of Cuba. British middleweight Chris Eubank Jr has also been in discussions for the next Alvarez fight.