Canelo Alvarez revealed yesterday (February 13th) during an appearance on TV Azteca, a Mexico-based news outlet, that he would be aiming to fight on May 4th―during the annual Cinco de Mayo weekend celebrations―against an American opponent that has yet to be named. Additionally, Canelo will be extending a deal he held with TV Azteca to broadcast his fights in Mexico, and he has revealed he is planning to continue fighting for at least the next five years.
Despite the unveiling by Canelo Alvarez (60-2-2. 39 KO’s) of certain developments set to occur in his career, the refusal by the Mexican superstar to divulge who his next opponent appears to be a sort of strategy to gauge or garner interest towards his next fight. With Alvarez revealing his next combatant to be an American, speculation about the identity of this opponent has naturally sprung into life.
In particular, WBC interim super middleweight champion David Benavidez (28-0, 24 KO’s) is currently the #1 contender in Alvarez’ weight class and is generally acknowledged as an opponent Alvarez must face due to prominently his position as undisputed champion―which comes with certain expectations, and the WBC’s own decision to mandate that the winner between Benavidez and Demetrius Andrade (32-1, 19 KO’s) would become the WBC mandatory challenger.
Not only did Benavidez become the mandatory challenger last year on November 25th after defeating Andrade by stoppage, he had already been designated as the WBC’s super middleweight mandatory contender earlier that year when he defeated former IBF world champion Caleb Plant (22-2, 13 KO’s) on March 25th, as the WBC had also stipulated during their November 2022 convention that the winner between Benavidez and Plant would become the WBC mandatory challenger.
In essence, Benavidez has fought himself to a mandatory position twice in one year yet Alvarez has not been ordered to face him, suggesting clear bias on the part of the WBC who appear to be hesitant to mandate a fight between the two. Even in such a scenario, there is every reason to believe Alvarez would ignore the mandate without any repercussions as the WBC has a proven track record in corruption and can simply refuse to hold the Mexican fighter accountable.
Another opponent that Canelo Alvarez could face is the former undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford (60-2-2, 39 KO’s, but despite the money-spinning benefits the fight would bring, Alvarez has yet to indicate clear interest in fighting Crawford. Competitively, the match is also of a low priority as Crawford last fought three divisions below where Alvarez currently reigns as the undisputed champion.
There is a chance that Alvarez might be matched with Jermall Charlo (33-0, 22 KO’s), the twin brother of Jermell Charlo (35-2-1, 19 KO’s) who Alvarez defeated on September 30th in 2023, but from a competitive standpoint the match would make as much sense as when Alvarez faced Jermell Charlo. Though Jermall Charlo fights a division below Canelo Alvarez at 160 lbs, and last even fought at a catchweight of 166 lbs, he has only recently returned from a two-year absence from the sport and does not appear to be in the same form as he did in the past following his fight with Jose Benavidez Jr. (28-3-1, 19 KO’s)―held on the undercard of the November 25th Benavidez-Andrade show.
Profit-wise, there are little doubts as to whether the two would make a lot of money as they had been supposed to fight several years ago when both Alvarez and Jermall Charlo had been champions at 154 lbs, and the dynamic between Mexican and American fighters would attract many consumers if a fight was staged in the United States.
Whichever of these three prospective American opponents Alvarez might face, a fight will occur during the weekend of Cinco de Mayo during, with May 4th confirmed as the fight date Alvarez will fight on, and there are plenty of indicators the fight will occur in America given the revelation of the nationality of his next opponent, and Alvarez’ tendency to fight in Las Vegas, Nevada―having fought there four times over his past five fights.
