The Canelo Sweepstakes is heating up. Dan Rafael reports that Premier Boxing Champions, which initially offered the Mexican superstar a one-fight deal to face Jermall Charlo in May, has now added a September clash with David Benavidez with an overall payout that “approaches nine figures.”
News broke last week that Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KO) was “close to finalizing” an offer from Matchroom to face Dmitry Bivol in May and Gennadiy Golovkin in September, but Alvarez’s team pushed back on the claims.
Benavidez (25-0, 22 KO) is essentially the only interesting challenge left for Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KO) at 168 pounds, and “El Bandera Roja” has been extraordinarily vocal about his desire to challenge the champion. He will, however, have to get past David Lemieux in an interim title fight tentatively planned for May.
Whatever the case, we’re now less than three months from fight night, so someone’s going to have to make a decision sooner rather than later. Wouldn’t want a repeat of Canelo’s various failed attempts to fight on Mexican Independence Day.