Canelo In “Serious Negotiations” With Murata
On Wednesday, FIGHT SPORTS wrote on Canelo Alvarez’s desire of fighting outside of North America in his return to the ring on May 4th.
While some believed Alvarez and Billy Joe Saunders or even Callum Smith were to face off in Alvarez’s first trip to the United Kingdom, a new challenger has arisen from Japan.
Representatives for Canelo Alvarez and Ryota Murata are engaged in serious talks to stage a Canelo-Murata fight in Japan in the spring, sources tell @SInow. Murata holds a secondary middleweight title. Canelo has been vocal with his desire to fight in Japan someday.
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) January 22, 2020
DAZN signing off on a Canelo-Murata fight in Japan, where it will get significantly less media coverage, could be a way to get the Canelo-GGG fight they crave. Give Canelo what he wants, maybe he gives DAZN what they want.
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) January 22, 2020
“DAZN signing off on a Canelo-Murata fight in Japan,” reported Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix, who broke the story of Alvarez bypassing a trilogy fight with Golovkin and fighting the popular Murata inside the Tokyo Dome in front of a possible 50,000 fans.
Smith’s trainer Joe Gallagher is criticizing Alvarez’s choice of current WBA middleweight champion Ryota Murata as his potential May 4th opponent for a fight in Tokyo.
“We can safely say that Canelo is doing what Floyd Mayweather did – he fights who he pleases and everyone just does what he says,” Smith’s trainer Gallagher told Sky Sports.
“I don’t think this will go down well in Mexico. We’ve been there with Liam Smith and everybody wanted Canelo vs Callum Smith. Even in Arizona the Mexican people were pushing for Canelo vs Callum.”
“In September Canelo will have to fight a Callum or a Gennadiy Golovkin,” Gallagher continued.”The inquest will take place in Manchester today.”
“No discussion yet on Billy or Callum,” tweeted their promoter Eddie Hearn, who was predicting that Alvarez was going to fight one of those two in his next fight.
The 16-2 Murata was last seen defending his version of the WBA middleweight championship in a TKO victory over Steven Butler.