Canelo Alvarez to face Callum Smith, Dazen can still fight

The Canelo Alvarez sweepstakes might end quickly, and a battle could take place that had many of the fans of the Mexican starlet.

ESPN’s Salvador Rodriguez reported that Alvarez will face Callum Smith in December in Texas. There was earlier speculation that the Caleb Plant could take the call, and Billy Joe Saunders’ name has been floated again as well, but it looks like it will be Smith.

The date will be either 18, 19, or 20 December – that is, from Friday to Sunday – and the location will be in Texas, either the AT&T Stadium in Arlington or the Alamodome in San Antonio.

Alvarez recently parted ways with the Golden Boy and DAZN, but that doesn’t mean DAZN won’t endure this fight, as Rodriguez says it is “very possible” they will. Smith is the Matchroom Boxing fighter, and of course Matchroom works with DAZN. Canelo is a free agent, and he appears to be working as his own promoter, and there’s nothing stopping him from continuing to work with DAZN as a broadcast partner, or for that matter with the Golden Boy in the future if they have someone they want to fight.

Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KO) won the WBA minor title for £ 168 in December 2018, beating Rocky Fielding in what was actually Canelo’s DAZN debut. He has since fought in the 160 and 175, but his focus has been on the 168th going forward, and Smith (27-0, 19 KO) is still seen as the best dog in the division, despite a dubious decision to win over John Ryder in Nov. 2019, which was Smith’s last fight.

The 30-year-old Smith holds the WBA-recognized “superhero” title at 168 and is also Ring Magazine Champion, for what he deserves. Canelo will be fighting to be recognized as the number 1 fighter in the world at 168 lbs. Even if there are questions about Smith, it’s not as if the other big names in the department have done anything to make a particularly strong case for the place itself.

However, it all looks like we’re going to have a huge weekend in mid-December. We’ll have Canelo Smith on a Friday and Sunday date, Gennady Golovkin is looking forward to coming back on the same weekend at DAZN, and now the Golden Boy is hoping to place the Ryan Garcia-Luke Campbell fight rescheduled this weekend as well, and that too will be on DAZN. If DAZN gets to work with Canelo and pulls off that fight as well, that’s a hilarious weekend for the live streaming service just weeks after it went global.