Promoter Eddie Hearn, who works on a fight by fight basis with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, could see the Mexican superstar take bigger risks in the future with physically superior fighters.
Last Saturday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Canelo stopped Billy Joe Saunders in eight rounds to unify the WBC, WBO, WBA super middleweight titles.
He’s now looking for the final piece of the undisputed puzzle – a showdown with IBF champion Caleb Plant in September.
Beyond the undisputed crown at 168, Canelo could potentially move back to light heavyweight for bigger game.
Back in 2019, Canelo moved up by two weight divisions to 175-pounds – and knocked out Sergey Kovalev for the WBO world title.
Afterwards, he vacated the belt and moved down to super middleweight.
“I think once he’s [unified all the titles at 168], then he’s made another piece of history, what do you do then? “Do you move up to 175? Well of course he’s already beaten Sergey Kovalev at that weight to win a world title. I don’t see him moving back down to middleweight, but he just loves challenges,” Hearn said to Sky Sports.
“This is a guy, he won a belt off Callum Smith, two belts in that fight, then he wanted to face Billy Joe Saunders, he’s won another belt. Now he wants to fight Caleb Plant and win the final belt, so he’s moving extremely quickly. He’s been by far the most active fighter during the pandemic, which is remarkable really as a pound-for-pound number one. Historically those kind of fighters actually fight fewer times than others, but he loves to fight and he’s never out of the gym.”
According to Hearn, Canelo is looking to fight all over the world – including a stadium in the UK.
“You saw one of the biggest stars in global boxing, and I think his plan now is to go and become undisputed. That’s a fight with Caleb Plant, which I think will happen in Las Vegas in September. Then from there, he wants to go and box around the world. He would love to fight in the UK. I think his popularity here is through the roof,” Hearn said.
“He’s beaten seven UK fighters over the years, so he’d love to fight here. He said he’d love to fight in the Middle East, the Far East. Of course in Mexico again in a huge show, so I think you’re going to see him box around the world. He told me that he wants to fight for seven more years, so you’re going to be seeing a lot of Canelo Alvarez.”