By: Hans Themistode
Following one of the more successful years of his Hall of Fame bound career, Canelo Alvarez is reportedly sifting through multiple offers.
According to Mike Coppinger of ESPN, Alvarez is mulling over two separate deals. PBC’s Al Haymon has extended a one-fight deal to Alvarez to face current WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo in May on Cinco De Mayo weekend on pay-per-view. Shortly after, Alvarez was reportedly offered a two-fight deal to face off against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol, which would then be followed up with a third showdown against longtime rival Gennadiy Golovkin.
Considering the amount of money Alvarez made for his most recent pay-per-view event, an 11th round stoppage victory over Caleb Plant, David Benavidez believes that Alvarez will continue to face the fighters associated with the PBC stable.
“If you look at the deals he was offered,” said Benavidez during an interview with FightHype.com. “Two-fight deal with DAZN with no pay-per-view or one fight deal with PBC with pay-per-view, it’s kind of a no-brainer. I think Canelo is loving that pay-per-view money.”
According to multiple reports, Alvarez made approximately $35 million for his eighth-round stoppage victory over Billy Joe Saunders on DAZN in May. As for his pay-per-view showdown against Plant, Alvarez reportedly pocketed upwards of $40 million, plus, pay-per-view upside.
Outside of the financial ramifications, Benavidez finds a showdown between Alvarez and Houston’s Charlo a fascinating one. The truculent power puncher has craved a showdown against Alvarez and has stated on numerous occasions that he has the power, size, and overall ability to give the pound-for-pound star fits.
The now 31-year-old middleweight champion has dominated during his title reign. Most recently, Charlo scored a fairly wide unanimous decision against Juan Macias Montiel. Still, despite Charlo holding a perfect record through 32 career bouts, Benavidez believes facing Alvarez is a completely different animal.
Over the past several months, both Charlo and Benavidez have thrown warning shots at one another, with the newly turned 25-year-old urging Charlo to face him in the ring. Although Benavidez is eager to square off against Charlo at some point, he acknowledges that the WBC middleweight titlist is an outstanding fighter.
Nevertheless, in terms of how the pair matches up, Benavidez suspects that their showdown is more likely to end explosively, with Alvarez having his hand raised in victory.
“Charlo has been a great champion,” continued Benavidez. “That’s a great fight for boxing. A fight with Charlo is going to be a tougher fight than Canelo has had in a while but also, I wouldn’t be surprised if Canelo knocks Charlo out. I think there’s a bigger possibility of Canelo knocking Charlo out than Charlo knocking Canelo out.”
