Tag Archives: Eddy Reynosa

Canelo Alvarez Planning His Second Fight of 2023, Jermall Charlo & Badou Jack on Short List

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Canelo Alvarez is planning his second fight of the year…

The 32-year-old Mexican boxer, the sport’s top star, is looking to fight one of two contenders later this year, according to ESPN sources: Jermall Charlo and Badou Jack.

Canelo AlvarezAlvarez, the undisputed super middleweight champion, and his trainer/manager, Eddy Reynoso, met with PBC founder Al Haymon last week in the Cleveland area, where a fall fight with WBC middleweight titleholder Charlo was discussed, sources said.

Charlo, 33, hasn’t competed since June 2021, when he scored a unanimous decision win over Juan Macias Montiel. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said last month that Charlo’s inactivity is due to mental health.

Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) is a former 154-pound titleholder who has never competed above 160 pounds. His twin brother, Jermell Charlo, is the undisputed junior middleweight champion. Both Charlos are advised by Haymon.

Alvarez’s last three bouts were promoted by Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, while his victory over Caleb Plant in November 2021 was a Showtime PPV presented by PBC.

PBC didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

Another option for Alvarez is Jack, the WBC cruiserweight titleholder. Jack’s longtime manager, Amer Abdallah, is the Head of Boxing for Saudi Arabia-based Skill Challenge Entertainment, a boxing promotion led by Prince Khalid bin Abdulaziz.

Abdallah told ESPN on Monday that “the big items are agreed upon, which is an approximate date” and “the financials” for a proposed fight for Jack’s 200-pound title in October in Saudi Arabia. Alvarez has expressed a desire to fight in Saudi Arabia and was ringside for Andy Ruiz’s rematch with Anthony Joshua in the nation’s capital, Riyadh, in December 2019.

Abdallah conceded the weight is an issue. Alvarez holds all four titles at 168 pounds and has twice competed for a light heavyweight title, but has never weighed more than 174.5 pounds — his weight when he scored a highlight-reel KO of Sergey Kovalev in November 2019.

Jack (28-3-3, 17 KOs) is a practicing Muslim whose last four fights took place in the Middle East. His most recent two fights were in Saudi Arabia, including his February victory over Ilunga Makabu to capture the WBC cruiserweight title.

The cruiserweight division limit is 200 pounds. Jack, a 39-year-old former super middleweight titleholder and light heavyweight contender, weighed 198.75 pounds for his last bout and hasn’t tipped the scales under 198.5 pounds since June 2021.

“It’s now just getting it over the finish line with the weight,” Abdallah said. “And mind you, that’s not a small hurdle, but it’s one we’re going back and forth on. So far, this has been the only situation and the only term that we’ve not fully agreed on. … But I’m hoping that if you fight for [a] cruiserweight [title], you’ve got to at least fight around the cruiserweight division [200 pounds] and not at light heavyweight [175 pounds].”

Alvarez outpointed John Ryder last month to retain his undisputed super middleweight championship in a Mexico homecoming. Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs) was fighting for the first time since he underwent left wrist surgery in October and did so before 50,000-plus fans in Guadalajara.

In the lead-up to the bout and afterward, Alvarez said he was focused on a rematch with Russia’s Dmitry Bivol in September. Alvarez was soundly defeated by Bivol in May 2022, his first loss since his 2013 fight with Floyd Mayweather.

The Bivol fight — for which Jermall Charlo was one of two finalists to face Alvarez — was Alvarez’s second 175-pound bout. He returned to defeat Gennadiy Golovkin in September 2022 on Mexican Independence Day Weekend, one of two annual dates Alvarez routinely reserves (the other is Cinco de Mayo Weekend).

Bivol told ESPN on Friday that the rematch with Alvarez is not happening in September, saying, “If you want to fight only me, just connect with our team and ask us about the fight.” Instead, Bivol said he would stay busy with a fall fight and target Artur Beterbiev for the undisputed light heavyweight championship.

Leading up to the Ryder fight, Alvarez insisted on a rematch with Bivol taking place at 175 pounds, while Bivol said he was only interested in a return bout at 168 pounds for Alvarez’s four titles.

“Canelo wants the rematch on all the same terms as the fight he lost,” Bivol’s manager, Vadim Kornilov, told ESPN on Friday. “Usually when a fighter really wants a rematch to happen, he doesn’t ask for all the same terms. If Canelo really wanted to avenge his loss as desperately as he portrays to the press, he would have been fighting GGG and Ryder first.

“And they would not be talking to the reps of Charlo, [David] Benavidez, [Edgar] Berlanga, etc. He is obviously avoiding Bivol and they know it would be tough for them to beat him.”

Benavidez, ESPN’s No. 2 super middleweight after Alvarez, has been calling for his shot at Alvarez in September. His promoter, Sampson Lewkowicz, said Benavidez is moving on after he never received a response to an offer he made to Reynoso.

“We had a friendly meeting [after] which I promised to send a proposal,” Lewkowicz told ESPN on Monday. “And then [Reynoso] insults me by claiming he never received a proposal. I sent it by email, by text message and by WhatsApp. There’s no way he didn’t receive it. … The only thing he’s looking for is the legacy of Canelo so that he can retire in two or three fights without losing. This is boxing, nothing is written in stone. He can lose to somebody less than Benavidez.”

The package Alvarez was offered could have exceeded $60 million, per sources, when accounting for his international TV rights and upside of the gate and pay-per-view for the Benavidez fight, the matchup most highly anticipated by fans.

Forbes last month ranked Alvarez at No. 5 on its highest-paid athletes list, with $110 million in estimated earnings in 2022.

Ryan Garcia to Make Comeback Against Emmanuel Tagoe in Lightweight Fight in April

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Ryan Garcia is preparing for his return to the ring…

The 23-year-old Mexican American boxer will meet Emmanuel Tagoe in a lightweight fight on April 9 at the Alamodome in San Antonio on DAZN, according to Oscar De La Hoya, who promotes Garcia.

Ryan Garcia

The bout will be Garcia’s first since January 2021, when he scored a seventh-round TKO of Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell in a career-best performance.

Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs) was slated to fight Javier Fortuna in July 2021, but he withdrew from the fight to address his mental health. A bout against Joseph Diaz Jr., set for November 2021, was cancelled after Garcia suffered a wrist injury while training that required surgery.

“I went through a hard year. … Everything came tumbling down on me mentally,” Garcia said on ESPN+‘s State of Boxing in December. “It was a hard time in my life. It got really dark … to the point I didn’t know if I wanted to live anymore. I had a lot of thoughts about that throughout the whole year.”

Garcia possesses arguably the quickest hands in boxing and packs plenty of power, too. He’s trained by Eddy Reynoso at Canelo Alvarez‘s San Diego gym, and under Reynoso’s tutelage, Garcia rose to No. 6 in ESPN‘s 135-pound rankings.

Garcia has lobbied for a super fight with Gervonta “Tank” Davis but first must impress against Tagoe coming off a 15-month layoff, the longest of his career.

Tagoe, a 33-year-old fighting out of Accra, Ghana, will be competing in the U.S. for just the second time. He’ll do so against his best opponent by far; Tagoe (32-1, 15 KOs) has fought only a handful of recognizable names. His last bout was in October 2020, a majority-decision win over Mason Menard, who is best known for a first-round KO loss against Teofimo Lopez.

“I’m not going to give up and I’m going to keep being an inspiration for people that are struggling,” said Garcia, who is approaching 9 million followers on Instagram. “I’m right back on track and I’m not going to let anything that all these people are saying outside of the ring, trying to come at my character and who I am as a fighter, I’m not going to let any of that get to me.”

Canelo Alvarez Reportedly Planning to Fight Mandatory Challenger Avni Yildirim in February

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Canelo Alvarez isn’t waiting long to get back in the ring…

The 30-year-old Mexican boxer, the sport’s biggest star, will return to the ring on February 27 versus mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, according to sources.

Canelo Alvarez

The fight will be broadcast on DAZN and other PPV cable platforms everywhere except Mexico.

It will be a stay-busy title defense for Alvarez (54-1-2, 36 KOs), who is coming off a dominant unanimous decision victory over previously undefeated champion Callum Smith on December 19 to win the WBA, WBC and the Ring magazine super middleweight titles.

 

The Athletic was the first to report the Alvarez fight date.

“Canelo is in the gym, and he has been working and training, waiting for the date,” Alvarez’s trainer, Eddy Reynoso, said. “And to take advantage of the preparation we had for most of last year without fighting.”

After a deal with Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn, Alvarez is on track to fight again on May 8, the weekend following Cinco de Mayo, against WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders. That bout is not official yet, but it is expected, with IBF champion Caleb Plant as a secondary option.

Alvarez (54-1-2, 36 KOs) has plans to unify the super middleweight division, with Saunders and Plant as the two other belt holders in the division.

Yildirim (21-2, 12 KOs) hasn’t fought since a February 2019 split technical decision loss to Anthony Dirrell. He has been Alvarez’s WBC mandatory challenger since before the Alvarez-Smith bout.

“Obviously it’s a very big fight for me. It makes me very proud to be on a stage like this, representing the Turkish people,” Yildirim told ESPN on Wednesday. “I know my opponent well. Of course, Canelo is one of the best in the world. But I know my value, and now the entire world will see who Avni Yildirim is.”

Alvarez and Reynoso wanted to fulfill their commitment to the WBC by fighting Yildirim before continuing their pursuit through the super middleweight champions.

“Yildirim is a strong fighter. He is a fighter who has earned his place in boxing to get to where he is as the No. 1 challenger in the world,” Reynoso said. “He had a fight against Anthony Dirrell, which seemed to me they took away from him, and gave it to Dirrell due to a cut. It was a world title fight, and [even with a loss], he became an official challenger. He is a guy who has worked honestly to be there, and he is dangerous, strong, has a good punch and very reliable.”

This will be Alvarez’s first bout in Miami, a place he has long enjoyed. Fans can be in attendance up to the COVID-19 pandemic capacity allowed at Hard Rock Stadium, where the Miami Dolphins and Miami Hurricanes play their home football games.