Canelo Alvarez May Face Dmitry Bivol, Gennadiy Golovkin In Two-Fight Deal

Canelo Alvarez’s move to cruiserweight seems to be on hold for now.

Instead, Alvarez and Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing are nearing a two-fight deal to compete on DAZN, sources told ESPN Wednesday afternoon. The first fight would be against light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol on May 7 in a 175-pound matchup while the second, given Canelo wins, would be a trilogy fight against Gennadiy Golovkin on September 17.

The deal has not been agreed to or finalized, but sources told ESPN that both parties are closing in on it.

Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) must first take on Ryota Murata in a rescheduled 160-pound title unification in the spring in Tokyo.

Another offer that has also been circulating in reports is an offer from Al Haymon’s PBC for Canelo to defend his four middleweight belts against Jermall Charlo on May 7.

PBC’s offer is worth up to $45 million guaranteed while Matchroom’s offer is worth up to $85 million.

Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) has been given multiple options after he became the first undisputed super middleweight champion in November against Caleb Plant via TKO.

His initial announced move, which was a request put in by his longtime trainer Eddy Reynoso, was jumping two divisions to take on WBC cruiserweight titleholder Ilunga Makabu.

Makabu seems to think that fight is still happening first since he called Alvarez out after successfully defending his title in a mandatory matchup against Thiabso Mchunu, but now that is unclear when and if that’s still happening.

Alvarez was criticized by some fans and accused of “cherry picking” his opponents. Those fans said they’d prefer to see Canelo defend against top super middleweight contenders like Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs), Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) and even Golovkin.

Charlo is a former two-weight champion, holding the WBC middleweight belt, which he retained in June, and the IBF light middleweight title from 2015 to 2017. Bivol has held the WBA light heavyweight title since 2017. Golovkin is a two-time middleweight champion, having held the IBF and IBO titles since 2019 and previously the unified WBA Super, WBC IBF and IBO belts from 2014 to 2018.