Canelo Alvarez Signs With HBO Sports; Alvarez Vs. Pacquiao Now A Major Possibility In 2015
Canelo Alvarez officially joined HBO Sports on Wednesday as the rising boxing star along with Oscar de la Hoya, founder of Golden Boy Promotions and Ken Hershman, president of HBO Sports, announced the agreement that will bring Alvarez to HBO.
"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," Alvarez said in the press conference.
"Today marks a huge milestone for me, and I look forward to a long and successful partnership with HBO."
The terms of the deal— the number of fights or years— were not disclosed.
Alvarez, who is from Juanacatlan, Mexico, has an impressive record of 44-1-1 with 31 knockouts with his lone loss coming against undefeated American, Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Alvarez was with rival network Showtime for the past five fights of his career including the fight against Mayweather which produced the all-time highest grossing pay-per-view (PPV) in the history of boxing at $150 million.
Both De la Hoya, a former popular prize fighter himself and Hershman were obviously excited with the prospect of marketing and earning more with Alvarez.
"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,” Hershman said of HBO’s biggest haul this year.
Alvarez actually fought under HBO Sports in the past but that came in a time when he was just an up-and-coming boxer.
"Canelo is the best young fighter in the sport, and this move will help line him up to fight top opponents in the sport for many years to come,” De la Hoya, a popular prize fighter himself, said of Alvarez’s move to HBO.
As with anything boxing, the Alvarez to HBO Sports move did not come without controversy.
In The Sweet Science article, Stephen Espinoza, the president of Showtime, claimed that three weeks ago De la Hoya already agreed to a multi-fight deal for Alvarez’s extension and promised that Canelo would be staying with Showtime.
“There was a disappointing aspect in that the whole situation as done in a deceitful manner, the way Oscar went about this” Espinoza said in the report.
Meanwhile, Alvarez can’t wait to get back inside the ring especially with the prospect that he’d be fighting the best boxers in the world. HBO has a deep pool of fighters that include Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs), Timothy Bradley (31-1, 12 KOs), Julio Cesar Chavez (48-1-1, 32 KOs) and Gennady Golovkin (30-0, 27 KOs) among many others.
"Obviously those are the names, those are the guys that I would like to fight. Yeah, the possibilities are enhanced now being with HBO,” Alvarez said via fighthype.com when asked about the possibility of facing off with the big names.
Watch the press conference below:
(YouTube/Boxing Channel)
As Floyd Mayweather continue to run away from the most wanted Mayweather vs. Pacquiao megafight, the move to HBO Sports by Alvarez might just give boxing fans a new and equally appealing superbout: Alvarez vs. Pacquiao in 2015.
