Promoter Eddie Hearn doesn’t know who Canelo Alvarez will fight in May before facing Terence Crawford in September. IBF super middleweight champion William Scull is the one that makes sense if Canelo wants to recapture that belt to become undisputed again.
There aren’t a lot of options for Canelo to fight in May unless he wants to take some tougher fighters, like Christian Mbilli or Diego Pacheco. Hearn is hesitant to let the 23-year-old Pacheco fight Canelo this early in his career and watch him get beat.
Canelo’s Loyalty
“I don’t know who Canelo is going to fight in May. Who is he going to fight, William Scull? Charlo? It doesn’t seem that PBC is doing the business with the Crawford fight. I don’t think they necessarily want to give him a fight. Canelo, it’s not that he doesn’t have any loyalty, but he also doesn’t give a f***. Business is business. If it works for Canelo Alvarez, it works for Canelo Alvarez,” said Eddie Hearn to Sean Zittel when asked if he thinks Canelo will fight for Riyadh Season in May.
“It’s like with us. we did an amazing job for him. when we didn’t have anything for him, he went somewhere else. As long as you understand that and know that and you have that relationship. I thought he loved working with us, but all of a sudden, we can only give him the Bivol rematch, and he doesn’t want the rematch, he’s going to go elsewhere.
“I feel like if he feels he can negotiate that fight himself with His Excellency, he’ll do it himself, and I think that’s what he’s doing. I think it’ll be in the United States. The problem with the Riyadh fights for the American audiences, His Excellency isn’t going to do a fight at 7:00 in the morning at Riyadh time, which is the timezone required for a U.S. pay-per-view.
Hearn thinks the Canelo vs. Terence Crawford fight will be in the U.S. rather than Riyadh because for it to draw numbers in the States, it would have to be at normal hours for pay-per-view events. Staging it in Riyadh would mean it would be shown in the early afternoon, and that wouldn’t work.
“Crawford-Canelo in the afternoon at 2:00 pm isn’t going to do the numbers that it would do,” said Hearn. “Crawford-Canelo would do big numbers on PPV in America. I don’t know, but I think that fight will take place in America. Canelo showed up at the Ring Magazine awards, and he wouldn’t be doing that if there wasn’t a big financial opportunity for him because it’s not his kind of thing,” said Hearn.
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