Canelo Alvarez wants superfights with Artur Beterbiev and Dimitry Bivol, says Eddie Hearn

GiveMeSport

scores

By Tom Ward

Published Jun 28, 2021

Canelo Alvarez aiming for 2022 superfight against Artur Beterbiev or Dimitry Bivol - but has Caleb Plant in his sights first

Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez would be open to moving up to light-heavyweight to fight Artur Beterbiev or Dimitry Bivol if he beats Caleb Plant in September.

Canelo Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs) is in talks to face IBF super-middleweight champion Plant (21-0, 12 KOs) at the MGM Grand in New York, and if victorious in 'The City That Never Sleeps', it could set up a return Stateside to take on unbeaten duo Beterbiev and Bivol next.

Beterbiev (16-0, 16 KOs) has not fought since defending his light-heavyweight world titles against Germany's Adam Deines in March at the Khodynka Ice Palace in Moscow and has recently expressed interest in fighting the Mexican superstar.

"Canelo is a cool boxer, I like him. It will not be an obstacle to enter the ring with him if there is an offer. I would gladly fight," Beterbiev said in his post-fight interview.

And now Canelo's business partner, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, says making a fight with Beterbiev will be one of his top priorities, so long as the Guadalajara-based Mexican boxer defends his WBA (Super), WBC, WBO and Ring magazine titles against Plant, who has been waiting patiently for his own shot at unifying the super-middleweight division.

“Canelo Alvarez is the absolute pound-for-pound king," Hearn said to Little Giant Boxing.

"He has the right to fight whoever he wants. But, the good news is, he is fighting champion after champion after champion.

“So you don’t have to worry about Saul, he’ll fight anyone.

"Maybe after this he will go to light heavyweight and he may fight Beterbiev and he might fight Bivol. He doesn’t care."

Canelo, who is 30 and from Mexico, last fought at 175 pounds when he stopped Sergey Kovalev inside 11 in November 2019.

But Alvarez subsequently moved back down to super-middleweight after relinquishing his WBO light heavyweight title, where he picked up the WBO gold-plated strap by defeating Billy Joe Saunders.

Only 21-0 Plant stands in his way of becoming undisputed super-middleweight champion in 2021.

Hearn is currently locked in crunch talks with Plant's promoter Al Haymon of Showtime Sports to set up an undisputed clash on September 11 in New York.