Well, it looks like we might be getting the worst-case scenario. Mike Coppinger reports that Canelo Alvarez’s planned unification clash with Billy Joe Saunders, previously targeted for either May 1st or May 8th due to Cinco de Mayo landing on a Wednesday, is “slated” to land on the 8th, seemingly putting it in direct conflict with Josh Taylor’s undisputed super lightweight clash with Jose Ramirez.
While it would be extremely in-character for Top Rank and Matchroom to pit their two biggest fights of Q2 2021 against one another in the middle of a pandemic that’s steadily squeezing organized sports to death, it’s not time to rage quite yet. Promoters have proven increasingly amenable to staging fights earlier in the afternoon, and it would not surprise me at all to see Top Rank soak up the UK prime time audience.
That could just be wishful thinking, of course, but Top Rank and Matchroom are presently collaborating on Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua, so I can’t see them stepping on one another’s toes after the effort involved in making that fight happen. And if they do, well, at least I’ll have motivation to write that “Loving a Sport that Doesn’t Love You Back” thinkpiece I’ve had brewing for a while.