Canelo Alvarez made the most of his new-found freedom. And boxing will benefit.
The pound-per-pounder announced only a few weeks after breaking contractual ties to Golden Boy Promotions and DAZN that he will fight super middleweight titleholder Callum Smith on Dec. 19, on DAZN, curiously enough.
The Alvarez-Smith fight isn’t a huge event – a bigger one should come next – but it’s a solid, competitive matchup that fans will buy into, particularly because Alvarez hasn’t fought since November of last year.
Alvarez, who holds a secondary 168-pound title, will have an opportunity to win a real one against Smith. That would give the future Hall of Famer major titles in four divisions.
More important, it’s a legitimate fight on paper. Smith is The Ring Magazine super middleweight champion and rated No. 1 by the Transnational Boxing Rankings, which gives you an idea of how good he is. He has skill, he has power, he has experience.
🇲🇽 Este 19 de diciembre será mi regreso al ring para enfrentarme a Callum Smith.
🇺🇸 I'll be returning to the ring on December 19th to face Callum Smith. #TheP4PKingIsBack #CaneloSmith pic.twitter.com/HDJqK44JOF
— Canelo Alvarez (@Canelo) November 17, 2020
And the resident of Liverpool, England will have a considerable height and reach advantage over Alvarez. Smith is 6-foot-3 (191 cm) and has a reach of 78 (198 cm). Alvarez measures in at 5-8 (173 cm) and 70½ (179 cm).
Plus, Alvarez is relatively new to the super middle division and above. He fought Rocky Fielding at 168 in December 2018 and went up to light heavyweight to stop Sergey Kovalev in his most-recent fight. However, Smith has fought at 168 or somewhat heavier since he turned pro in 2012.
Critics might point to Smith’s last bout – a competitive fight with John Ryder in November of last year that many scored for Ryder – and say he’s vulnerable. Perhaps. However, it’s not fair to write him off after one sub-par performance.
He acknowledged afterward that he underperformed and presumably will have learned from it. Plus, motivation might’ve been a factor. He certainly won’t be lacking that going into the fight with Alvarez.
In fact, Smith will have a little extra inspiration: Family honor will be on the line. Alvarez knocked out Smith’s brother Liam in a junior middleweight fight in September 2016.
Alvarez is a 3½-1 favorite to win the fight, according to BetMGM. That’s a significant margin but I wouldn’t call Smith a longshot. I’m picking Alvarez to win. I believe he’d beat anybody near his weight, except for a few light heavyweights.
In other words, Smith has about as a good chance as anyone to beat Alvarez.
If Alvarez wins? Anything is possible now that he’s a free agent. And he’ll have extra clout – as if he needs it – as a newly crowned champion.
He could begin the inevitable process of trying to unify the 168-pound titles by fighting Caleb Plant or Billy Joe Saunders. However, some are speculating that he’ll opt to face Gennadiy Golovkin a third time on Cinco de Mayo weekend in what might be the biggest-possible fight for him at the moment.
There is some unfinished business there, as they drew in their first meeting and Alvarez won a close decision in their rematch.
That probably means he’d fight one more time on the DAZN platform, with which Triple-G remains affiliated, although it’s unclear how the streaming service will be able to pay Alvarez what he would command on the free market if he beats Smith.
After that, I presume, he would return to the lucrative pay-per-view model, which would pay him a bundle against the likes of Plant, David Benavidez, Jermall Charlo and possibly 175-pounders like Artur Beterbiev or Dmitry Bivol at some point.
If that doesn’t whet the appetite of boxing fans, I don’t know what will.
Yes, it’s good to have the biggest attraction in boxing back. It’s like dark, forbidding clouds have suddenly separated to reveal bright, warm sunlight. Let’s enjoy it.
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