Canelo Alvarez has partnered again with Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions.
The Mexican superstar announced in a brief video posted to his Instagram account Thursday afternoon that his next fight in September will be presented by PBC. The undisputed super middleweight champion didn’t mention an opponent, but Jermall Charlo is considered the favorite to challenge Alvarez next for his IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO 168-pound championships.
Alvarez and Eddy Reynoso, his trainer and manager, reportedly met with Haymon recently to discuss the possibility of facing the unbeaten WBC middleweight champion next. Alvarez, 32, is expected to announce his next opponent before the end of this month, perhaps as soon as Friday.
Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) hasn’t fought in two years, but the Houston native has long wanted to face Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs). Charlo also has repeatedly expressed a willingness to move up from the middleweight limit of 160 pounds to the super middleweight maximum of 168 pounds for that lucrative opportunity.
While he hasn’t confirmed that Charlo will be his next opponent, Alvarez’s next fight will headline a Showtime Pay-Per-View event. It likely will be scheduled for September 16, but that date wasn’t finalized as of Thursday.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed, however, that Alvarez’s September bout will mark the start of a multi-fight agreement with Haymon’s PBC.
It was not clear at the time this story was posted if Alvarez, should he win in September, agreed to face a specific opponent in the second fight of this agreement. David Benavidez, another PBC-affiliated fighter, has also been very vocal about his desire to challenge Alvarez and is commonly considered the most appealing opponent for Alvarez in the 168-pound division.
Alvarez had a positive experience while working with PBC and Showtime for his 11th-round stoppage of former IBF super middleweight champ Caleb Plant in November 2021 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. He nevertheless returned to work with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing and DAZN for his three following fights because he only agreed to a one-fight contract with PBC for the opportunity to become boxing’s first fully unified super middleweight champion of the four-belt era when he opposed Plant.
DAZN has streamed nine of Alvarez’s past 10 fights since HBO Sports revealed after Alvarez’s rematch with Gennadiy Golovkin in September 2018 that the premium cable network would no longer broadcast boxing.
Alvarez was promoted by Golden Boy Promotions at that time, but he parted ways with Oscar De La Hoya’s company in the fall of 2020 following a legal dispute. The Guadalajara native later partnered with Matchroom, which also has an exclusive content agreement with DAZN.
Matchroom promoted six of Alvarez’s past seven fights, most recently his 12-round, unanimous-decision defeat of British southpaw John Ryder on May 6 at Akron Stadium in Zapopan, Mexico, just outside of Guadalajara. London’s Ryder (32-6, 18 KOs), who is also promoted by Matchroom, was the WBO’s mandatory challenger for one of Alvarez’s titles.
Charlo, 33, last fought in June 2021, when he beat Mexico’s Juan Macias Montiel (23-6-2, 23 KOs) by unanimous decision. Their 12-round fight was trickier than anticipated for the heavily favored Charlo, who still beat Montiel by big margins on all three scorecards at Toyota Center in Houston.
The former IBF junior middleweight champ was supposed to make an optional defense of his WBC belt against Poland’s Maciej Sulecki (31-2, 12 KOs) a year ago at Toyota Center. Charlo withdrew from that bout, reportedly due to a back injury he sustained while doing roadwork.
Charlo later acknowledged publicly that personal problems kept him out of the ring for an extended period of time after he recovered from that injury.
In addition to Charlo, Alvarez also has explored Dmitry Bivol and Badou Jack as potential opponents since he defeated Ryder.
Vadim Kornilov, Bivol’s manager, has publicly stated that Alvarez’s handlers haven’t offered nearly enough money to entice Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) to take a rematch with Alvarez. Russia’s Bivol beat Alvarez by unanimous decision in their 12-round fight for Bivol’s WBA light heavyweight title in May 2022 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Sweden’s Jack (28-3-3, 17 KOs) removed himself Saturday as a possible foe for Alvarez’s next bout because Jack disclosed that Alvarez wanted to fight for Jack’s WBC cruiserweight title at a catch weight of 180 pounds, 20 below the limit for the cruiserweight division.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.