3 days Ago By Lyle Fitzsimmons
Canelo Alvarez makes it easy to set your watch. The cinnamon-haired Mexican emerges from his multi-millionaire superstar lair twice each year -- on the weekends adjacent to Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day -- and reminds a fractured fan base that he's still the biggest name in boxing. He did it again on Saturday night in Las Vegas, where he helped draw more than 20,000 to the T-Mobile Arena while the rival UFC was producing a show of its own two miles away.
A 12-round unanimous decision over a brave but outgunned Edgar Berlanga was the latest result, running the now-34-year-old's record to a remarkable 62-2-2 since he turned pro as a skinny 140-pound teenager in 2005. It came on the 11th anniversary of Alvarez's initial star-making opportunity against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013 and shifted the focus forward toward May 3, 2025, when he's likely to return for fight No.
67. The B/R combat team put its collective forward-thinking hat on to consider what might come next -- parsing the possibilities into who it could and probably will be alongside who we wish it would be and a choice that could break the internet. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.
OK, we're leaving this one to Team Canelo. Alvarez justified the fight with Berlanga -- an opponent with a gaudy record but little in the way of high-end opposition -- by pointing out that the unbeaten Puerto Rican was the No. 1 contender for his championship in the eyes of the WBA.
So it's not crazy to suggest he'll go that direction again in May, when he could point to either Christian Mbilli or Diego Pacheco as the next man with which he'll share a marquee. Mbilli is a 29-year-old Cameroonian-born purveyor of violence labeled a "168-pound Joe Frazier" by SiriusXM host Randy Gordon. He's the top-ranked contender for Alvarez's WBC belt and most recently appeared in the ring in August, when he improved to 28-0 with a 10-round decision over former middleweight challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
Meanwhile, the 23-year-old Pacheco has ascended to No. 1 contender status according to the WBO, a status he locked in with a sixth-round body shot stoppage of another ex-middleweight title challenger, Maciej Sulecki, that boosted his record to 22-0 on August 31. Neither Mbilli nor Pacheco would be much more than a prohibitive underdog against Alvarez, but the Mexican bristled Saturday after previous criticism that he only fought older fighters.
The work rate of Mbilli and the size of Pacheco, who stands 6'4" and has a 79-inch reach, would help sell either as a worthwhile, albeit untested, challenger. It'd be nice to stop talking about this. But every time Alvarez appears in the ring and is not looking across at David Benavidez, an unbeaten former two-time champion at 168 pounds, the conversation will be prolonged.
For those somehow still unaware, the 27-year-old from Arizona has won each of his 29 fights since turning pro in 2013, stopping 24 opponents and climbing to both interim champion and mandatory challenger status alongside Alvarez according to the WBC. Still, Alvarez has shown no interest in fighting his 6'2" tormentor, to the point where Benavidez most recently climbed to light heavyweight in June and defeated Oleksandr Gvozdyk by a wide 12-round decision to become the WBC's interim champ there, too. Benavidez still wants the fight and is hoping the recent Saudi Arabian interest in boxing will yield a purse so significant that Alvarez can't refuse, but it wasn't a particularly good sign Saturday night that the 168-pound king refused to even entertain questions about him.
"If you pay me what I'm worth, I'm willing to consider any and all places," he said at the post-fight press conference. "But right now I'm really happy fighting here in the U.S.
in front of my Mexican fans." Say what you like about Alvarez, but one thing is clear. He's a prideful guy.
Which means the losses he's had -- especially given that there have only been two of them -- tend to stay with him as long as or longer than the wins. And that brings us to Dmitry Bivol. Or, more accurately, brings us back to Dmitry Bivol.
If you're unsure exactly who he is, that's OK. Though he's reigned on one level or another as a WBA light heavyweight champion for nearly seven years, his sublime skill has largely been overlooked in favor of his fellow claimant at 175 -- KO machine Artur Beterbiev. Alvarez targeted Bivol for his second trip to light heavyweight on Cinco de Mayo weekend in 2022 and instead found himself out-boxed on the way to a 12-round loss, a result that he's pined away for a chance at reversing ever since.
There's been debate between the camps over whether Bivol would drop to 168 to try for Alvarez's titles or the Mexican would step up again to 175, but one thing is for certain: If Bivol gets past Beterbiev in their scheduled showdown in October, Alvarez will be the first one making a call. It's nice not to see Jake Paul here, right? Though the internet-busting slot is often reserved for the "Problem Child" and others of the influencer ilk, the choice for Alvarez that'd truly test the cyber seams is, gasp, a real fighter. Terence Crawford.
The former champ at 135, 140 and 147 pounds most recently climbed to 154 and added a fourth weight class belt with a narrow 12-round decision over Israil Madrimov. And because daring to be great is a part of his DNA, the 37-year-old has made no secret of the fact that the last big hurdle on his competitive agenda is a climb to 168 to meet Alvarez. Crawford was in Las Vegas for fight weekend but instead decided to attend the UFC show at the Sphere -- where he was incorrectly ID'd as Kendrick Lamar on the roving big-screen camera -- but there's little doubt his mind was at T-Mobile Arena, hoping for an Alvarez win.
Amazingly, though he fights two weight classes below his would-be rival, Crawford actually stands a half-inch taller has a three-plus-inch edge in reach and has a confounding ability to switch stances that has helped him defeat 41 straight opponents since 2008. More than a few people who know what they're looking at believe that the impossible is possible, and Crawford is unapologetically confident he can get it done. He took to X , formerly known as Twitter, after Alvarez beat Berlanga.
"Put me in the game coach!" he wrote..
