Canelo Alvarez has no fight in sight but his team is still mulling prospective opponents.
For example, Eddy Reynoso, Alvarez’s trainer, likes the idea of fighting Jermall Charlo but says a showdown with welterweight champ Errol Spence Jr. isn’t likely any time soon because of weight. Caleb Plant, a super middleweight beltholder, is a good option. Callum Smith, another 168-pound champ, isn’t as viable because Reynoso believes Smith is having trouble making that weight.
Charlo (31-0, 22 KOs) is a middleweight titleholder coming off an impressive unanimous-decision victory over Sergiy Derevyanchenko in September.
Reynoso spoke to ESPN Deportes about Charlo and the other potential opponents for his star fighter, whose best weight is 168 pounds.
On Charlo: “Charlo has been rising, he has been advancing. It would be a big and important fight, but that fight has to take place next year.”
On Plant (20-0, 12 KOs) and Smith (27-0, 19 KOs): “Plant has been showing that he is a very good fighter at 168. Smith is at 168. It was shown the last time he fought … that, in my opinion, he did not win the fight [against John Ryder]. I don’t think he can handle [making] 168 pounds any longer.”
On Spence (26-0, 21 KOs), who wants to fight Alvarez at 160: “With what Spence says, it would be a good fight, it’s difficult [to make] because of the weight. To begin with we have to see how [Spence] returns [after his car accident]. … I don’t think we can make 160 pounds right now after a year without fighting. … These are factors that can be complicated.”
Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) has been out of the ring since last November first because the coronavirus pandemic and then a legal dispute with Golden Boy Promotions and DAZN, his promoter and streaming service, that has frozen his career.
Reynoso said Alvarez has been in the gym and could be ready to fight in a month. The trainer holds out hope that the Mexican star could see action before the end of the year.
“We are really working as if we were going to fight,” he said. “We have always had that criterion. You have to be in the gym for whatever comes. So we have confidence that we can do something before the end of the year.
“And, if not, well, to fight in the early months of the following year. That why we are active and we are working in the gym daily.”
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