Eric Gomez of Golden Boy said there’s a ‘very good chance’ Canelo Alvarez will fight either Callum Smith or John Ryder in September.
Will it be either Callum Smith or John Ryder?
Eric Gomez, president of Golden Boy Promotions, told Sky Sports that there’s a “very good chance” Canelo Alvarez will face a British fighter when he returns to the ring in September, meaning either Smith or Ryder.
However, Gomez also said, “We are not discarding any of the top guys.” And he added that it would be easier for Alvarez to face an American opponent because of coronavirus-related visa restrictions.
In other words, the search goes on.
Sky Sports asked Gomez specifically whether he could face Smith or Ryder. He responded by saying, “There is a very good chance. There are a couple of guys we are looking at as a possibility.”
Then he got into the visa issues, saying the selection of an American opponent would be less complicated.
“We don’t have to deal with any visa restrictions that have been imposed by the government,” he said. “If there is someone already here in the U.S.? That helps. It is more difficult now because of the restrictions.
“The borders are not all open so it isn’t easy to bring some fighters to the U.S. It all depends on the negotiations. We are not living in the world that we lived in last year. Canelo will be taking a significant pay cut. It depends on the negotiations.
“Anybody willing to come to the table and be reasonable, he will fight. We are not discarding any of the top guys.”
Sergiy Derevyanchenko (13-2, 10 KOs) of Ukraine, David Lemieux (41-4, 34 KOs) of Canada and Anthony Dirrell (33-2-1, 24 KOs) of Flint, Michigan, also have been mentioned as potential opponents for Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs).
Smith (27-0, 19 KOs) is a super middleweight titleholder who would afford Alvarez an opportunity to win a major belt in a fourth weight class. Ryder (28-5, 16 KOs) lost to Smith in a competitive fight in November, the last time both fighters were in the ring.
Alvarez was scheduled to face 168-pound titleholder Billy Joe Saunders in May but that fight was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic and the two couldn’t come to terms for a meeting in September.
That news prompted Smith’s trainer, Joe Gallagher, to say, “It’s supposed to have been a two-horse race, wasn’t it? Now he’s pulling himself out of it, Canelo has got no excuse now, but to fight Callum Smith.
“If that date and opportunity is put to Callum Smith, he’s ready to go.”
Ryder told Sky Sports: “There’s a few names in the hat. Hopefully my name is at the top and it gets picked out. Listen, he’s looking for an opponent, and I know the money is not there for these big shows. It’s a chance in a lifetime, I’m up for it.”
Knockout artist Vergil Ortiz Jr. believes he’s ready to face the top welterweights now but will remain patient.
Some might be surprised to learn that Vergil Ortiz Jr.’s favorite sport isn’t boxing. It’s cross country.
Ortiz ran three-mile courses all four years at Grand Prairie High School outside Dallas. He embraced the grit and focus required to compete in long-distance races. And he loved the team aspect of the sport. The problem was that he was only pretty good in cross country, not great.
“I wasn’t slow,” he told Boxing Junkie. “I just wasn’t nationally ranked or anything like that. I was just happy to be there.”
Boxing? Well, his opponents probably wish he’d been better at cross country.
The moment Ortiz first sparred one day after kindergarten he was hooked. And he was good. A few years later he discovered something else: He had an unusual ability to knock out his opponents, a marketable talent he retains to this day.
Vergil Ortiz Jr. (right) celebrates another knockout, this one against Mauricio Herrera in May of last year. Al Bello / Getty Images
Ortiz has caused a stir since turning professional in 2016, stopping all 15 of his opponents – six in the first round – to become one of the hottest welterweight prospects on the planet.
He returns to the ring after a seven-month hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic against veteran Samuel Vargas on July 24 at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, Calif., on DAZN.
“I’ve been putting people down since I was 9 years old,” Ortiz said. “It’s not because I had power. I always had the right punch placement. I remember the first time I dropped someone to the body. It wasn’t like Mike Tyson power. I was only 9.
“It was just a perfect shot to the body. Ever since then I’ve been hurting people in different ways.”
Ortiz said he doesn’t look for knockouts, although he used to. He went into the first few bouts of his pro career – which he described as his “worst fights” – with one goal in mind: “Knock the dude’s head off.”
That almost came back to bite him in his fifth fight, a scheduled four-rounder against Angel Sarinana in a scheduled four-rounder in May 2017. He went for the kill from the opening bell, as usual, but was unable to score a first-round knockout for the first time.
By the second round, Ortiz was in trouble before regrouping and stopping Sarinana in Round 3.
Ortiz said he’s learned not to try for knockouts. They just come. Ethan Miller / Getty Images
“I gassed myself out,” he said. “By the second round, I was completely winded. At that point, I knew something had to change. I can’t keep doing this. Eventually you find a guy who can take a punch, like this guy.
“That’s when I started using my head more, making every punch count.”
He went on: “I want to look good winning. I used to stop people in the amateurs and my dad would tell me, ‘You didn’t do good, you didn’t do what you were supposed to do.’ At first, I was like, “Really?” I see it now, though. I understand when you look good and don’t look good. I have to do what I’m supposed to do and I have to look good doing it.
“If one day I don’t knock some guy out … as long as I look good in the fight, as long as I did what I was supposed to do and learned something from it, that’s win-win for me.”
Ortiz has done what he was supposed to do since that fifth fight. The knockouts have come. And with them has come adulation and excitement, both from fans and those around him.
That includes his handlers at Golden Boy Promotions.
Said Golden Boy President Eric Gomez: “There’s other good prospects out there but the skills this kid has … I haven’t seen in a long time and I’ve been promoting boxing for 20 years. He’s incredible, he can do it all.”
Of course, he recognizes and appreciates the reaction to his success. At the same time, he recognizes reality. He’s 22. This is only the beginning of his boxing journey, meaning he hasn’t accomplished much yet.
That’s his attitude. Confident, but humble. He seems to have common sense.
“It’s not something I expected, especially so early in my career,” he said, referring to the adulation. “I try to block it out. I’m only in this position because I trained hard in the gym. To keep that going, I have to be training like nobody else.
“Technically, I’m not anybody. I’m not a world champion, I haven’t done anything special in the sport yet.”
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That will come, he believes. All he has to do is continue to win and the opportunities to face the biggest names in the sport – welterweights like Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford – will present themselves eventually.
He understands that politics could be a problem. He fights for Golden Boy, Spence for Premier Boxing Champions and Crawford for Top Rank, to mention just three prominent 147-pounders. Those are divides that are sometimes difficult to overcome.
Still, he is convinced it’ll happen.
“I think if it weren’t for the other-side-of-the-street thing the fights would happy pretty soon,” he said. “I’ve learned that it’s a lot more complicated than I thought it was going to be. I have to really prove myself. I have to force the fight to happen.
“I don’t know how. Maybe I’ll become a mandatory [challenger]. They’ll want to pay me off and I’ll say no. I don’t know. When the time comes I’ll figure it out.”
When it does happen, Ortiz is certain he’ll be ready.
“I feel I’m ready now,” he said. “And even if I weren’t, I would still take the fight because you can’t pass up an opportunity like that. I feel I can give any welterweight a hard fight right now. To be honest, I think they’re making a mistake not fighting me right now.
“I’m only getting stronger, getting smarter, gaining experience.”
The California State Athletic Commission on Friday passed emergency regulations that would allow cards to be staged this summer.
California is a step closer to hosting post-lock down combat sports shows.
The California State Athletic Commission on Friday passed emergency regulations that would allow cards to be staged this summer, according to ESPN. The guidelines were forwarded to the California Office of Administrative Law for its review, after which combat sports could resume.
Andy Foster, the CSAC executive director, laid out the regulations for ESPN.
“The fighters will be tested between two and three weeks before their event for the COVID-19 virus,” he said. “If they’re clear, we’ll accept them on the bout card and we’ll approve the fights if they meet the other criteria.
“Then two days before they travel, they’ll fill out a questionnaire. And when they get to the hotel, they’ll be isolated and tested again with their fight camps. Everybody involved in the promotion will be tested on that day.
“Anybody that the promoter deems ‘essential’ to their promotion — and we approve them to be there, and that could be media — anybody that is in that building [who is] part of the promotion is going to need to be tested.”
Foster said California officials will use information gleaned from UFC 249, which took place on May 9. That included the fate of Jacare Souza, who tested positive for COVID-19 the day before the event.
“We learned from that event, and I want to be clear, that’s not to put down the UFC one bit, they had a great plan and everything,” he said. “We learned by watching that, just how contagious this virus could be. So we want to mitigate that risk.”
Golden Boy President Eric Gomez has said that his company hopes to stage a card as soon as July 4.
Andrew Cancio, who recently left Golden Boy Promotions, reportedly has signed a multi-fight deal with Top Rank.
Andrew Cancio will soon be back to working two jobs.
The former junior lightweight titleholder and Southern California day laborer has reportedly signed a multi-fight deal with Top Rank, just two months after he was released by former promoter Golden Boy for voicing his discontent with the company before his knockout loss to Rene Alvarado on Nov. 23.
Cancio, who crafted one of the best feel-good stories of last year by upsetting then titleholder Alberto Machado twice, took his ex-promoter to task for what he perceived was a lack of a promotional boost. After Cancio’s loss to Alvarado via seventh-round stoppage, Golden Boy promptly dropped the fighter from its roster.
“He wanted bigger purses and he wanted to fight in bigger venues,” Golden Boy president Eric Gomez told ESPN. “He didn’t think Golden Boy was providing that for him so we released him and wish him all the best. I hope he finds what he’s looking for.”
Cancio’s new promotional deal with Top Rank means he joins a packed stable of 130-pounders, including titleholders Miguel Berchelt and Jamel Herring, as well as contenders Carl Frampton and Oscar Valdez.
Golden Boy Promotions President Eric Gomez believes 168 pounds is the best weight for Canelo Alvarez at this stage of his career.
Canelo Alvarez’s immediate future remains up in the air.
Golden Boy Promotions President Eric Gomez told ESPN.com that Alvarez will fight next on May 2, which was expected. He generally fights on Cinco de Mayo weekend.
Who will he fight? No one is off the table, although Brits Callum Smith and Billy Joe Saunders seem to be in the mix.
The only thing that seems likely is that Alvarez will fight at or around 168 pounds, although anything is possible in that regard too. He’s coming off a KO victory over Sergey Kovalev to win a 175-pound belt in November but gave it up.
“I personally feel that’s the best weight class, where he’s going to be the best at, at this point in his career,” Gomez said. “That’s the weight class he’s going to feel the best, the strongest. But it doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t go back to light heavyweight, he still has that possibility.
“Giving up the title, yes, it was about the weight, but it wasn’t all about the weight.”
A fight with Smith or Saunders makes sense because it would allow Alvarez to win a 168-pound title and enhance his exposure in the U.K., wherever the fight takes place. Alvarez beat Rocky Fielding to win what the WBA calls its “regular” super middleweight title but Boxing Junkie doesn’t recognize that belt.
Of course, Alvarez could also fight Gennadiy Golovkin a third time.
“We’re not ruling out anybody – everybody, even at 160 pounds,” Gomez said. “If he wants to go back to 160 pounds or if there’s any of the champions that want to move up, face him, we’re not ruling anything out.”
