Canelo Alvarez's return to the ring against WBA (Super) and The Ring super middleweight champion Callum Smith on December 19 now has a location.
The 168-pound showdown will take place at The Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, with a limited amount of fans allowed in the venue due to COVID-19 restrictions.
For Alvarez, he's excited to return to the arena where he beat Austin Trout by unanimous decision in April 2013 to become the unified junior middleweight champion.
“I am thrilled to be back at the Alamodome and very thankful to be fighting in front of my fans on December 19,” Canelo said. “I have great memories of my previous bouts in Texas, and I expect this to be a special fight to close out the year.”
Alvarez (53-1-2 36 KOs) returns to action for the first time since defeating Sergey Kovalev by 11th-round knockout in November 2019 to capture the WBO light heavyweight title. This will be the second time Alvarez competes at 168 pounds. He defeated Rocky Fielding via third-round TKO in December 2018 at Madison Square Garden to capture the WBA (regular) super middleweight belt.
Smith (27-0 19 KOs) has been looking for the big fight and finally gets what he's been asking for against boxing's biggest star. He competes for the second time in the United States, stopping Hassan N'Dam on the Anthony Joshua-Andy Ruiz Jr. undercard in June 2018. The Englishman last competed in November 2019, beating John Ryder via unanimous decision.
“It’s fantastic news to be able to hold this great fight in front of fans and in a great stadium like the Alamodome,” said Smith's promoter Eddie Hearn, managing director of Matchroom Sport. “It’s a fight that deserves to be witnessed in the flesh and those fans that snap up the hottest ticket in town next week will be in for a brilliant night of action, topped by the pound-for-pound king taking on the number one Super-Middleweight in the world — a simply unmissable occasion for those in attendance and watching live on DAZN.”