Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez leaves Showtime to re-join HBO

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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez/Photo courtesy of Golden Boy Promotions

 

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on Tuesday signed an agreement to return to HBO beginning with his next fight in December, the interested parties announced.

Alvarez, an ultra-popular former super welterweight champion from Mexico, fought seven times on HBO between 2010 and 2012. He moved over to Showtime after his promoter – Golden Boy Promotions – and HBO had a falling out and HBO said it would no longer work with Golden Boy.

That edict eased when HBO signed on to televise the upcoming light-heavyweight title fight between Golden Boy’s Bernard Hopkins and Sergey Kovalev on Nov. 8 in Atlantic City.

Alvarez has fought his five most recent fights on rival Showtime. Terms of his new agreement with HBO were not disclosed.

“For all of my career, I have wanted to fight on HBO for one main reason –  I believe it will allow more of my fans to see me in action,” said Alvarez, who is 44-1-1 with 31 knockouts. “Today marks a huge milestone for me, and I look forward to a long and successful partnership with HBO.”

Oscar De La Hoya, president of Golden Boy, was stoked.

“I’m thrilled to be part of this historic agreement between ‘Canelo’ Álvarez and HBO Sports, an agreement that marks another major step in Golden Boy Promotions’ primary goal to give boxing fans the fights they want to see,” he said.

Ken Hersham, president of HBO Sports, seemed equally jazzed.

“Everyone at HBO is excited to welcome back ‘Canelo’ Álvarez to the HBO family, and we can’t wait to re-introduce him to our subscribers,” Hershman said. “At only 24 years old, ‘Canelo’ has already established himself as one of the boxing world’s brightest stars, and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship as we embark on this new chapter together.”

Alvarez last fought in July and won a split-decision over Erislandy Lara at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Alvarez lost his two super welterweight world titles to Floyd Mayweather jr. via majority decision in September 2013.

 

 

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HBO president Ken Hershman not high on Gennady Golovkin-Peter Quillin fight

Indications are that at least some of the boxing public would like to see Gennady Golovkin and Peter Quillin square off in a middleweight title unification bout. The biggest roadblock to making that fight is that Golovkin fights on HBO, Quillin on rival Showtime.

That said, it was interesting to hear HBO Sports president Ken Hershman talk about that fight the other day via telephone from his office in New York City. Apparently, he’s not all that high on that fight.

“As far as Gennady Golovkin and Peter Quillin go, I wouldn’t put it in the top three fights that I want to see Gennady Golovkin get in,” Hershman said. “So I’m not that motivated to talk about it. Yet, I’m open to any ideas that people have.”
Hershman has some of his own.
“I’d like to see him fight Sergio Martinez,” Hershman said. “I’d love to see him fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., I’d love to see him fight Andre Ward, I’d love to see him fight (Adonis) Stevenson, I’d love to see him fight the winner of (Jean) Pascal-(Lucian) Bute. All of those fights I’d like to see before Peter Quillin. Just from a style standpoint as a fan, not even as a network executive.”

Golovkin has said he is willing to fight as high as super middleweight, meaning Stevenson, Pascal and Bute would have to move down from light heavyweight.

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