Canelo Alvarez doesn’t expect his boxing match to struggle for business just because it’s going head-to-head with the UFC.
Alvarez (61-2-2) defends his WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles against Edgar Berlanga (22-0) on Sept. 14 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the same day that Sean O’Malley (17-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) defends his bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili (17-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in the UFC 306 main event at Sphere. Both events are taking place to celebrate Mexican Independence Day weekend.
One of boxing’s biggest stars, Alvarez is unfazed by the UFC as competition. Noche UFC is sponsored by Riyadh Season, which was launched by Saudi Arabian Royal Court adviser turned boxing promoter Turki Alalshikh. Alvarez and Alalshikh were recently involved in a public back-and-forth over a failed negotiation.
“It’s just different,” Alvarez said on the “MILLION DOLLAZ WORTH OF GAME” podcast. “Yeah, maybe other boxing matches (would suffer against the UFC). Maybe. Canelo is just different. I don’t care if the UFC is there. When Canelo fights, it’s different.”
This won’t be the first time Alvarez goes head-to-head with the UFC. In November 2019, DAZN delayed Alvarez’s superfight against WBO light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev by more than an hour to avoid clashing with UFC 244, which was headlined by a BMF title fight between Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz. Alvarez vs. Kovalev only started after Masvidal vs. Diaz concluded.
And Canelo has gotten sick of pacing while waiting to go out pic.twitter.com/i08CUL5xUE
— Kevin Iole (@KevinI) November 3, 2019
