Alvarez Stripped Of Title Following Failed Negotiations
Canelo Alvarez has been stripped of his IBF Middleweight Championship. This comes following failed negotiations to schedule a bout.
With Alvarez competing on DAZN, it is a little more complicated for him to book a fight. DAZN offered him two opponents to fight in his return. He was presented WBO Light Heavyweight Champion Sergey Kovalev, and a trilogy fight with boxing great Gennady Golovkin.
Despite this, Alvarez was not interested in the GGG fight. At least, not until 2020. Additionally, negotiations with Kovalev’s camp came to a halt as he accepted a bout with Anthony Yarde. So Canelo Alvarez was left with few options.
Subsequently, Alvarez was forced to look at a bout with IBF mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Initially, DAZN did not approve Alvarez to fight Sergiy, but eventually changed their minds. However, the two parties were unable to reach a deal in time, and Alvarez was stripped of his belt.
According to a report from ESPN, the core of the issue comes from money. With DAZN being Alvarez’s only broadcast partner, they required a pay cut. The report says that when DAZN agreed to allow Canelo to take a bout with Sergiy, they need him to take a cut of $5 million of his $35 million purse.
So with negotiations coming to a halt, Alvarez was then stripped of his IBF title. While he has two other belts, the IBF is strict on champions fighting mandatory challengers. When Avarez failed to meet that timeline, Alvarez lost his belt.
It seems that GGG will face Derevyanchenko for the vacant title, around October 5th. Subsequently, it is expected that Canelo Alvarez will face WBO champ Demetrius Andrade on the 26th of the same month. So perhaps if both GGG and Alvarez are successful, a third bout will take place.
