It won't be long until boxing fans across the world will find out Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez's plans for the forthcoming year and everything seems to be pointing towards an agreement with Matchroom which includes a clash with WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol and a long awaited trilogy fight with Gennadiy Golovkin.
When discussing the reported deal between Canelo and Matchroom, DAZN's Chris Mannix and Sergio Mora believe this two-fight plan makes the most sense.
"Anytime you’re dealing with a mega event with a superstar fighter you’ve got to weigh up three options, the money, the atmosphere and the significance," Mora said on JABS.
"All those three are going to point in one direction.
"The money, I think you are going to get paid more with DAZN and Matchroom. The significance of the fight, you are going to be picking up a title if you beat a young, hungry and undefeated champion in Dmitry Bivol and chances are you are going to be the heavy favourite against Gennadiy Golovkin and you end up closing out a classic trilogy.
"If you stay on the ‘other side’ of the street, you’ll be dealing with two hungry, physical fighters in Benavidez and Charlo, and you’re probably going to get paid a lot less in smaller venues.
"Across the street you’re fighting at Miami Stadium, you’re fighting at Dallas Stadium, go over to PBC you’re fighting at MGM.
"You’ve got to weigh up your options and I think Bivol and GGG make the most sense for Canelo Alvarez."
Mannix meanwhile was excited by the prospect of some closure to the Canelo-Golovkin rivalry and thinks the undisputed super middleweight champion could compete for all four 175lb belts in 2023.
"Bivol has the advantage of having a world title at 175lbs so if Canelo can beat Bivol and take away that WBA belt, all he has to do is wait for that tentatively planned Joe Smith-Artur Beterbiev fight to happen in the Summer, and then in early 2023 he can fight for the undisputed light heavyweight championship," Mannix explained.
"What I really care about is that we’re going to get a third fight between Canelo and Golovkin if this deal gets finalised.
"That is the fight Sergio I’ve been saying for months, for years, needs to happen. The record is officially 1-0-1 in favour of Canelo, you can certainly argue it should be 1-1.
"You can definitely argue that there hasn’t been a definitive winner that has come out of those matchups because all 24 of those rounds have been razor close.
"Canelo needs to have some punctuation, some finality on this matchup with his long time rival and I’m just glad if this deal goes through, we’ll finally have a winner."