Badou Jack has removed himself from Canelo Alvarez’s list of potential opponents for the Mexican icon’s next fight.
The WBC cruiserweight champion announced Saturday on Twitter that he is unwilling to meet Alvarez’s demand of fighting at a contracted maximum of 180 pounds, 20 pounds below the cruiserweight limit of 200. Jack also stated that Alvarez wanted a rehydration clause in their contracts, which would’ve required Jack and Alvarez to weigh in again the morning of their fight.
Jack (28-3-3, 17 KOs) didn’t reveal the exact terms of the proposed rehydration clause. The 39-year-old champion ultimately determined, though, that the payday wouldn’t have been worth the physical disadvantages the native Swede would’ve faced had he met Alvarez’s demands for their fight.
“I won’t be fighting Canelo next,” Jack wrote on Twitter. “They said the weight difference is too much, they wanted to drain the old man and fight me 20lbs UNDER the cruiser weight limit for the title. Plus a rehydration clause.”
The 32-year-old Alvarez has won world titles in four weight classes. He has talked since last year about moving up to the cruiserweight division for a chance to become a five-weight world champion.
Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs) seemed most interested in challenging Ilunga Makabu (29-3, 25 KOs), but Jack beat the Congolese southpaw by 12th-round technical knockout to win the WBC cruiserweight title February 26 in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. Jack weighed in at 199¾ pounds for the Makabu bout and hasn’t officially weighed less than 198½ pounds for any of his four cruiserweight contests since November 2021.
Now that Jack is out of the running to face Alvarez next, the former WBC super middleweight and WBA light heavyweight champ encouraged Alvarez to take the fight fans most want the undisputed super middleweight champion to embrace in his own weight class.
“Canelo let’s give the fans what they want to see,” Jack wrote, “and fight David Benavidez.”
Phoenix’s Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) has called out Alvarez since last year. Sampson Lewkowicz, Benavidez’s promoter, revealed recently that the WBC interim super middleweight champ has turned his attention to a fall showdown with Cuban southpaw David Morrell Jr. (9-0, 8 KOs) because Alvarez’s handlers haven’t responded to an offer to box Benavidez that could’ve become worth $50 million for Alvarez.
Vadim Kornilov, who manages Dmitry Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs), also stated recently that Alvarez’s team doesn’t seem serious about him boxing Bivol again because they haven’t offered the type of money that Russia’s Bivol believes he deserves after soundly defeating Alvarez on points in their 12-round fight for Bivol’s WBA light heavyweight title 13 months ago at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Edgar Berlanga (20-0, 16 KOs) also is considered a possible foe for Alvarez’s next fight. The super middleweight contender from Brooklyn first must beat Ireland’s Jason Quigley (20-2, 14 KOs) in their 12-round main event June 24 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.