By: Hans Themistode
For the past few weeks, Canelo Alvarez saw himself move closer and closer to his ultimate goal of becoming an undisputed world champion at 168 pounds. However, as first reported by Mike Coppinger of ESPN, his dream of holding all four world titles will have to wait.
Initially, all appeared well in negotiations. In fact, many of the contract details were reportedly hashed out. A date of September 18th was officially agreed upon, so we’re the financial part of their arrangement.
According to reports, Alvarez was set to earn a career-high payday of more than $40 million. As for Plant, his purse came in north of $10 million, also a career-high. While it’s been years since Alvarez was last seen on the pay-per-view stage, the Mexican star was set to return to the platform in his showdown with Plant on Fox.
At the moment, there were no specific details in terms of why their negotiations broke down. No matter the case, as claimed by Coppinger, Alvarez vs. Plant is “dead in the water.” At least for now.
While Alvarez has made his feelings known that he would love nothing more than to become the first undisputed world champion at 168 pounds, promoter Eddie Hearn continued to express that if a deal isn’t agreed upon, that Alvarez has a bevy of options. Amongst them, would be two showdowns at 175 pounds.
Current WBA light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol and unified champion Artur Beterbiev, are said to be in the driver’s seat as secondary options. In the case of Beterbiev, Hearn revealed that Alvarez “sickly” wants a matchup with him soon. Outside of move up in weight, a possible third showdown against Gennadiy Golovkin has also been mentioned.
As reported several weeks ago, DAZN officials approached Golovkin about the possibility of facing Alvarez in September. From there, Golovkin didn’t mince words, stating he was “ready, willing and available.”
Both Golovkin and Alvarez shared the ring on two occasions. The first, which took place in September of 2017, ended in a controversial draw. The two would do it again one year later. This time, Alvarez eked out the majority decision win.
Still, despite their history, Alvarez has shown little to no interest in facing him. The pound-for-pound star is firmly of the belief that if they were to cross paths in the ring once more, he would violently put an end to their rivalry.
Although Alvarez seemingly has plenty of options to choose from outside of Plant, the IBF 168 pound belt holder remains his preferred option. With three title defenses under his belt since winning gold against Jose Uzcategui in January of 2019, Plant has continued to claim that while he respects the skillset of Alvarez, he presents the sort of complex puzzle that the Mexican product wouldn’t be able to solve.
Nonetheless, while both fighters remain confident in the outcome of their possible showdown, they’ll have to work out the wrinkles of their fight agreement before anything is set in stone.