Mexican superstar Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez 57-1-2 (39) will be facing the best light heavyweight in the world when he face undefeated Russian Dmitry Bivol 19-0 (11) at the T-Mobile Arenai in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 7.
That’s the firm belief of promoter Eddie Hearn, who has locked in Alvarez to a two fight deal that will see the 31-year-old face IBF middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin 41-1-1 (36) in a trilogy fight in September.
The 5-foot-8 Alvarez has fought just once at light heavyweight when he jumped up two weight classes from middleweight for a surprise hit-and-run mission to the 175-pound division to relieve Sergey Kovalev 34-4-1 (29) of his WBO strap in November 2019.
Since then Alvarez has settled in comfortabley to the super middleweight division where he quickly took control of all four major world titles.
First came Callum Smith, who he fought for the WBA and vacant WBC 168-pound titles winning in a virtual shutout. After a routine title defence against Avni Yildrim who he stopped in three, Alvarez turned back the challenge of WBO titleholder Billie Joe Saunders in eight frames. IBF boss Caleb Plant only fared marginally better, getting stopped in 11.
It has been as an impressive run at super middleweight as anyone has had in the history of the division.
Alvarez was also considering a move up to the 200-pound cruiserweight division to tackle WBC champion Ilunga Makabu earlier this year.
Instead, he will make his second foray to light heavyweight to take on Bivol, who is in some people’s opinion the best boxer in the weight class where Artur Beterbiev hold the WBC and IBF straps while Joe Smith Jr is the WBO boss.
“This is a true great of modern-day boxing and when you look at the resume off the back of the two fights with GGG, fights against Daniel Jacobs for the middleweight championship, stepping up two divisions to fight Sergei Kovalev for the WBO light heavyweight championship,” Matchroom Boxing boss Hearn said.
“Within one year becomes undisputed 168-pound champion by beating all three champions in Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant.
“If that wasn’t enough, now he moves up again another division to fight in my opinion the best light heavyweight in the world in Dmitry Bivol.
“Dmitry Bivol is undefeated, current WBA champion of the world, we’ve worked with him for a long time, his manager Vadim Kornilov and world of boxing who we have a great relationship with.
“This young man has been looking for an opportunity like this for a long time, this is not a young man who’s reached the end of his career or is past his prime, this is an outstanding champion in his absolute prime ready for the opportunity of his life against the pound-for-pound king of boxing – Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.”
