Eddie Hearn says that he and Canelo Alvarez will work together for a third fight at the end of the year.
It was made official earlier this week that the undisputed super-middleweight champion would return to Matchroom and DAZN in a money-spinning two-fight deal. First up Canelo will face Dmitry Bivol for the Russian’s WBA light-heavyweight title on May 7. Then in September the plan is for the Mexican to defend his super-middleweight titles against Gennadiy Golovkin, in what will be a third bout between the pair.
However, there will be one more occasion in 2022, likely in December that Canelo will return to the ring.
Boxing Social’s Ryan Elliott asked Hearn about who that third fight may be against.
“We’ve got [Ilunga] Makabu in Mexico, we’ve got John Ryder in London. They’re two fights I’m talking to Eddy Reynoso about. Yeah, we will be doing three fights this year. He has to win [first] and they’re really tough fights. That’s the plan and we look forward to a brilliant year with Canelo and Eddy.”
Canelo had planned to move to cruiserweight to face Makabu in May and while his plans have changed the challenge to take on the WBC champion obviously remains an option.
Ryder picked up the biggest win of his career recently narrowly beating former two-time world middleweight champion Danny Jacobs earlier this month. Ryder’s win in their WBA eliminator puts him in a good position to face ‘Regular’ champion David Morrell but Canelo has expressed a desire to fight in the UK and it may well be that Brit gets the chance to take on the pound-for-pound king.
Click here to watch Boxing Social’s full interview with Eddie Hearn.