On Saturday, Nov. 2, Saul "Canelo" Alvarez moves up from middleweight to light heavyweight to challenge WBO 175-pound champion Sergey Kovalev. An Alvarez victory would net him a fourth world title in four different weight classes.
Why Alvarez decided to try and make history instead of remaining at middleweight and clean out the division to become the undisputed champion has left some puzzled.
There's the highly lucrative clash with rival and IBF titlist Gennadiy Golovkin. They fight on the same platform, DAZN, and should be an easy fight to make. However, Alvarez has remained steadfast in his refusal to battle "GGG" one more time. He feels that he has already beaten Golovkin twice, so a third fight would be pointless for him at this stage of his career.
There is also an intriguing option in fellow champion, WBO titleholder Demetrius Andrade.
Andrade is undefeated in 28 fights (28-0, 17 KOs) and is a two-division world champion. While he doesn't quite carry the name recognition of Golovkin and Kovalev, the Rhode Island native is regarded by some pundits as the best overall fighter in the division. Even though he's called out Alvarez and Golovkin over the past year, he has been unable to land fights with either due to his slick style and the lack of a big-name opponent on his resume.
On a media conference call to promote the Kovalev fight, Alvarez didn't hold back when asked why he hasn't answered Andrade's call.
"The truth is he hasn't fought with anyone, hasn't fought against anyone, and he's also boring, very boring," Alvarez said. "Maybe he's a good fighter, but he's a boring fighter, and at the end of the day, when there's a boring fight, people are going to blame me. I like fights where there's action, where people can enjoy a good show. That's very important for me. But also he doesn't represent a challenge for me, as well, because he hasn't fought against anybody."
The 31-year-old Andrade won the vacant WBO title by sending Walter Kautondokwa to the canvas four times to win a lopsided decision. He's fought two times in 2019: a 12th-round TKO victory over Artur Akavov and dominant unanimous decision win against Maciej Sulęcki.
Andrade currently doesn't have a fight scheduled.