Canelo Alvarez Aims For November Fight, Opponent Unknown

Canelo Alvarez will miss out on fighting during Mexican Independence Day weekend.

Initially, Canelo was looking to take on IBF Super-Middleweight Champion Caleb Plant in a title unification bout on Sept. 18. Things took a turn during the negotiation process and the bout fell apart. Canelo then turned his attention to WBA Light-Heavyweight Champion Dmitry Bivol. A deal couldn’t be made for the two to make the September date.

Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn revealed to ESPN that Canelo is now looking to fight in November.

“Sept. 18 became tighter and tighter and we made the decision today to focus on November.”

Canelo’s opponent for November is unknown at the moment. Here’s what Bivol’s manager, Vadim Kornilov, told ESPN.

“We made our deal on our side; we made that deal two weeks and we had an understanding of what was going to happen. We were waiting to see if the Canelo side was going to finalize. Maybe we’ll find out what the reason was at some point.

“At this point, we just want to know if they still want to do the fight. If not, we have other options — maybe Zurdo Ramirez or [Artur] Beterbiev. Those are good fights. Maybe Marcus Browne. Whatever the best option is, that’s what we’ll do to keep Bivol as active as possible at this point.”

Canelo was last seen inside the ring back in May. He defeated Billy Joe Saunders via eighth-round TKO to capture the WBO Super-Middleweight Title. At this point, Canelo is just one major title win away from undisputed status at 168 pounds but the Plant fight is off the table for now.

Bivol also remains without the major fight he’s been searching for. As his manager mentioned, a potential showdown with Artur Beterbiev, who holds the WBC and IBF gold, is being sought after.