Boxing Rumors: Canelo Alvarez Sends Two Super Middleweight Champions Fight Tenders, Gets Turned Down By One

Canelo Alvarez reportedly sent Billy Joe Saunders and Callum Smith separate offers to fight him for a super middleweight title bout on May 2. The respective management teams are said to be in the process of sorting out the talks after what was deemed to be “unacceptable” tenders according to the receiving parties.

Mike Coppinger of The Athletic posted Thursday that Alvarez formally expressed his willingness to fight either of the two super middleweight elites through the Golden Boy Promotions.

“Billy Joe Saunders and Callum Smith each received offers from Golden Boy for a May 2 super middleweight title bout with Canelo Alvarez on DAZN. Both offers were deemed unacceptable by their respective teams and negotiations are ongoing,” Coppinger wrote.

He then added that should the negotiations fail to reach common ground, Eddie Hearn, the promoter of both Saunders and Smith, plans to assemble a fight card that will headline the two U.K. residents instead.

“If terms with Canelo can’t be reached, it’s believed Eddie Hearn will look to match Billy Joe Saunders and Callum Smith in a 168-pound title unification match in early summer in the U.K., where both champions reside. Hearn promotes both fighters,” Coppinger follow up.

Shortly after the report, though, Alvarez’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya said that Smith has already opted out of the potential blockbuster bout.

“Callum Smith turned down the fight. I wish him all the best. He’s bragging how he wants to fight the best and he turns it down. What’s wrong with these fighters?” De La Hoya said.

Wil Esco of SB Nation’s Bad Left Hook quoted De La Hoya in his report on Thursday while sharing the Boxing icon’s daze on Smith’s sudden change of heart. “This is obviously a curious turn of events — one that naturally makes me assume there’s much more to this story — as it’s well known that Callum Smith has been holding out for a shot to land a fight with Canelo for some time now,” he wrote.

Smith had looked all prepared to take on the challenge of Alvarez as he was already in a taunting mood days before the report of Golden Boy’s offer was published. The 29-year-old British said he was just “waiting for a phone call” from Alvarez whom he has no doubts he’ll easily beat.

“The decision lies with Canelo who he fights. I’m sitting and waiting, ” said Smith initially to Boxing Social. “I’m waiting for the confirmation. Probably only Canelo’s team knows.”