Don King could be the man to prevent Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez 57-1-2 (39) from facing WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu 28-2 (25).
The veteran promoter, who represents the 34-year-old southpaw from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, announced this week that he is moving ahead with a fight between Makabu and number one challenger Thabiso ‘The Rock’ Mchunu 23-5 (18) in Ohio on January 29.
“This is going to be one action packed WBC world championship fight with a very big fight on the horizon for the winner,” said King.
“They are both warriors and this war for the recognition of the homeless will start the new year in grand style, recognising the homeless, and helping others.”
Mexican Alvarez, 31, is coming off an 11th round knockout victory over Caleb ‘Sweethands’ Plant 21-1 (12) in Las Vegas earlier this month that saw him retain his WBC, WBA and WBO super middleweight titles while adding the IBF belt to his collection.
In a surprise move shortly after the fight his team revealed they were in discussion with Makabu and the WBC about the possibility of Alvarez jumping up two weight classes to challenge the Mexican sanctioning body’s champion.
It is a bold gambit but not unprecedented for the Mexican superstar. Two years ago he conducted a successful hit and run mission at light heavyweight, relieving Sergey Kovalev 34-4-1 (29) of his WBO strap by 11th round knockout.
Still, King’s intervention doesn’t mean the proposed Makabu-Alvarez fight is dead in the water just yet. The target date for the clash is May next year, with Alvarez’s trainer and manager Eddy Reynoso negotiating a step aside fee for Mchunu to allow the Alvarez fight to take place first.
“Right now, we’re in talks with the manager of the champion. He has a date in February where he has a mandatory defence,” Reynoso said to Matchroom Boxing.
“We’re going to see if we can have a negotiation to have a step aside and then fight in May. That’s what we’re planning. We barely started negotiating that.
“We barely started suggesting that to the WBC. If we can negotiate that we’ll move ahead and if not, there are other options as well.”
Alvarez has emerged as the face of boxing in the past five years following the retirement of both Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr, whom he lost to on points in 2013.
The plan is to have Alvarez fight around the globe next year as he looks to expand his international brand.
“That’s one of the projects that we have, to fight in the UK and fight in Japan, fight in China and fight in Dubai,” Reynoso said.
“That’s what we want to do next in the career of Saul, which is to fight around the world.”
