The fights are coming thick and fast, but one fighter who still hasn’t confirmed his next move is Canelo Alvarez.
The 2021 fighter of the year took his legacy to even greater heights last year with several remarkable performances and after unifying every single belt on offer at 168lbs, there’s plenty of speculation on what he will do next.
Talk of moving to cruiserweight to take on my old friend, Junior Makabu, looked the likely next step at the backend of last year, and such a leap would've seen Canelo become world champion in a fifth division. But that talk of making waves in the weight class I enjoyed many great nights has gone quiet in the last few weeks and it remains unclear at this point what the Mexican will do in 2022.
Planning the career of Canelo should be an easy task. He only wants big fights that will challenge him and every fighter from 147lbs right up to cruiserweight would entertain the opportunity due to the incredible payday it brings. Whoever he wants to fight, whatever challenge he wants, it’d be hard to think of a fighter who’d turn him down because Canelo generates so much interest due to his profile.
If the previous chat about him moving to 200lbs is off the table for the time being, then what will he do?
Middleweight probably isn’t an option as you’ve got to go back to 2019 for the last time he fought at 160lbs. Daniel Jacobs was the unfortunate victim that night but Canelo’s priorities since then have been super-middleweight and light-heavyweight, and it’s the latter division I think he should try and conquer next.
Canelo’s initial stay at 175lbs was only a brief one. Just before the pandemic took a hold, Canelo was given a tough time courtesy of Sergey Kovalev, but he was able to get the job done with a late stoppage.
The performance told us that Canelo could compete and hurt with the best light-heavyweights, but it was by no means a victory that gave him supremacy over the division the way he’s dominated everyone at super-middle.
Canelo’s legacy is secure no matter what happens with his career now, but can you imagine how he’ll be remembered in years to come if he becomes the first man to take four world titles in two separate divisions?
That’s the kind of stuff that makes legends and if Canelo has shown us anything in recent years, it’s the fact he’s not afraid of taking on the biggest challenges out there.
Shane Mosley, Floyd Mayweather, Erislandy Lara, Miguel Cotto, Gennadiy Golovkin, Kovalev, Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders. Some of these fighters are icons of the sports and some are world champions of the highest order. Canelo has been in the ring with all of them and been successful more often than not.
If he wants to add to this then cleaning out light-heavyweight is the way to do it and Dmitriy Bivol should be the next man on his list.
The top three at light-heavyweight currently looks like Artur Beterbiev, Bivol, and Joe Smith, and with one and three reportedly set to meet in a great fight later this year, that leaves Bivol as the best way for Canelo to get his hands on a world title at this weight.
The other two are big, strong punchers with a lot of size, so it might make sense for Canelo to test himself against Bivol first before trying to secure a fight against the winner of Beterbiev and Smith later in the year.
The Russian is a very good fighter who does the basics very well. The difference between him and the other two champions is that he doesn’t possess as much power and Canelo would fancy his chances of outboxing anyone. Bivol would jump at the opportunity to take on the best fighter in the sport and if he somehow causes what would be a small upset, think of the doors that could open for him.
The next move for Canelo is crucial and there’s a few appealing options out there for him, but there’s been a focus on light-heavyweight from him before and I think he should look there again.
There’s unfinished business there from when he moved up and took out Kovalev. Can he repeat the result against another Russian in Bivol and build a platform for another crack at undisputed glory?