Pound for-pound king Canelo Alvarez, whom many believe to be the face of boxing, is unlikely to fight in 2020 amid contract disputes with DAZN.
2020 has been an unprecedented year for sports, and the world as a whole. Despite a drought of major fights that lasted for quite a few months, the big-name fighters have slowly started to return to the ring, with some great fights scheduled to take place in the fall.
Despite most of the big-name fighters returning to action, the biggest name in the sport – Canelo Alvarez – will likely not be among them.
Canelo and streaming service DAZN are in a stalemate over money issues, and this dispute could lead to Canelo not fighting at all this year. Canelo’s contract that he signed with DAZN includes a guarantee of $35 million per fight, and Canelo does not seem willing to move from that number.
DAZN, however, is trying to get the superstar to agree to a payout of about half of that for his next fight, due to the economic hardships the pandemic has brought about. Having no fans in attendance is a huge blow to the overall revenue a Canelo fight would normally make.
To make matters even worse, there is a dispute between Golden Boy and DAZN over the language of the contract, which states that Alvarez must face one ‘premier’ opponent per year. This would all but eliminate the possibility of Canelo facing Avni Yildirim for the vacant WBC super-middleweight title, despite the WBC ordering the fight.
While it does not seem like the two sides will come to an agreement anytime soon, if Canelo were to fight this year, it would likely be against Callum Smith or Billy Joe Saunders on Nov.14 (per Mike Coppinger).
On the one hand, Canelo has a valid argument: he signed a contract and DAZN should hold up their side of it. He was not expecting a once-in-a-century pandemic to occur.
On the other hand, DAZN is still offering Canelo roughly $17 million, and in a time where millions of people across the world have lost their jobs, and with so much uncertainty surrounding just about every aspect of life, $17 million is still quite a lot of money. But who am I to tell someone to take a 50 percent pay cut.
No matter who’s side you are on, we can all agree that this situation sucks. Canelo is the biggest name in boxing, and whenever he fights, there are more people watching than usual. Hopefully, the two sides can come to an agreement soon, and sports fans can have the pleasure of watching one of the best fighters in the sport fight.
–fansided.com
