Badou Jack has ruled out fighting Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez next after recent speculation the two could meet in Saudi Arabia.
Amer Abdallah of Skill Chalenge Promotions handles Jack’s affairs and earlier this week revealed they were in direct talks with the Mexican’s team about a potential fight for his man’s WBC cruiserweight title. Canelo has previously expressed an interest in fighting in the 200lbs division to become a five-weight champion.
Abdallah stated that terms were ‘90%’ agreed and that the only sticking point would be the weight for the contest.
“Canelo’s a living legend. He’s an icon in the sport. He’s arguably the face of boxing … the financial terms are agreed upon, the date is agreed upon, everything is there it’s just that the weight is where the sticking point is.
If you want to come up to cruiserweight, then you have to fight at cruiserweight, and I think that’s where the hesitation is. I get it, Canelo’s a super middleweight. Badou was a super middleweight. You can’t ask a guy that walks around at 205, 210, fights at 200, to come in at super middleweight or light heavyweight, or slightly above that.
I would love for that fight to be made for everybody’s interest, and we have 90% of the terms agreed to. It’s just the remaining one or two items, and I think the weight is going to be issue here.”
It appears the Saudi representative was spot on in his assessment, with Jack taking to social media to rule out the fight and revealing Canelo’s demands around the weight.
“I won’t be fighting Canelo next. They said the weight difference is too much, they wanted to drain the old man and fight me 20lbs UNDER the cruiserweight limit for the title Plus a rehydration clause. Canelo let’s give the fans what they want to see and fight David Benavidez.”
I won’t be fighting Canelo next. 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.
Canelo let’s give the fans what they want to see and fight David Benavidez— Badou Jack (@BadouJack) June 17, 2023
Although Jack has called for Canelo to now face David Benavidez next, it seems the Mexican is still keen on running it back against Dmitry Bivol first – although the Russian appears to have little interest in doing a deal.