Despite coming up short in his light-heavyweight return earlier this year, Canelo Alvarez is not ruling out a cruiserweight fight with Oleksandr Usyk.
Alvarez, 32, suffered his first loss in almost nine years when he was outpointed by 175lb world titleholder Dmitry Bivol in May. It marked his second fight at the weight class, having previously captured the WBA title against Sergey Kovalev in 2019. Alvarez is returning back to 168lb for his next fight to defend his undisputed title against bitter rival Gennady Golovkin on September 17.
The Mexican has previously stated he would face unified heavyweight champion Usyk - who was once an undisputed champion at cruiserweight - if both men weighed 201lb for the fight. Alvarez is still open to the idea, as he told Fight Hype : "It's difficult, but I don't care. I like that type of challenge, I don't care. It's going to be difficult I know, but I love boxing. I love being in that type of situation.
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Usyk hasn't fought at cruiserweight in almost four years, knocking out Tony Bellew to defend his undisputed belts in his last fight at the weight class. Standing at 6'3", the Ukrainian would hold a huge size advantage over the 5'7" Alvarez, who has never weighed above 175lb in his boxing career. Usyk has previously stated he would need to lose 12kg to make the "freak fight" happen.
"To fight Canelo Alvarez, I would have to lose 12kg. It will be a freak fight," he told Parimatch. "I think firstly I need to do what I have in mind in the heavyweight division, and then maybe arrange such a fight. The fight with Canelo Alvarez potentially involves big money, so I’m not ruling out the possibility that it will happen."
Usyk is unlikely to fight at cruiserweight again anytime soon, with a undisputed clash against WBC champion Tyson Fury seeming imminent. December 17 in Saudi Arabia was being targeted for the Usyk vs Fury, but that date is now "highly unlikely" to host the fight likely being hold on either February 11 or 18 next year.
Alvarez's promoter Eddie Hearn said the Mexican would even be willing to take the fight one pound above the cruiserweight limit, telling JOE: "When we talk about mindset and winning, he genuinely believes he can beat Oleksandr Usyk for the world heavyweight title. He said to me ‘if you can make that fight at one pound above cruiserweight [200lbs] I will beat him'."
