Canelo Alvarez is leaning toward accepting the two-fight deal from Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn & DAZN for him to face Dmitry Bivol and Gennadiy Golovkin in his next two fights in 2022.
ESPN reports that Canelo has turned down PBC’s 2-fight deal worth $100 million for him to fight Jermall Charlo and David Benavidez. Both of those fights would have been huge sellers on pay-per-view but risky for Canelo.
The negotiations between PBC and Canelo stopped ten days ago after the Mexican star rejected the $100M offer from them, which would indicate that’s a far as they were willing to go for the two-fight deal.
Initially, PBC was offering Canelo a one-fight deal to face Jermall Charlo. Still, somewhere along the line, they added the unbeaten former two-time WBC super middleweight champion Benavidez (25-0, 22 KOs) to the equation.
Some boxing fans believe Canelo has avoided the 25-year-old Benavidez like the plague for the last four years. If that’s the case, PBC’s decision to add Benavidez to their deal may have wrecked their chances of getting it done.
“PBC offered Canelo Alvarez a two-fight deal worth upward of $100 million guaranteed for bouts with Jermall Charlo and David Benavidez in May & September, respectively, but that package was rejected by Alvarez about ten days ago, and there has been no dialogue with PBC since,” said @MikeCoppinger. “With talks completely broken off, Canelo has been focused on completing the deal with Matchroom for fights with Dmitry Bivol and GGG.”
Whether PBC has a less dangerous fighter than Benavidez that they can substitute is unknown. The problem with PBC replacing Benavidez with a lesser fighter is that the fight won’t sell. They can’t replace Benavidez with a no-name as part of the two-fight deal with Canelo without hurting their chances of marketing the battles on pay-per-view.
With the high risk involved for Canelo against Charlo and Benavidez, he may have decided on taking the arguably easier fights against Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) and the soon-to-be 40-year-old GGG.
It’s unclear how much Canelo, 31, will get from Matchroom for the two-fight deal, but it was reported to be $80 million+. That’s good money for Canelo to fight Bivol and Golovkin. Bivol has looked beatable in his recent fights against Craig Richards and Umar Salamov.
Matchroom’s offer will likely be close to the same amount as PBC’s because Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) won’t agree to take less for two risky fights against WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol and Golovkin.