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Saul “Canelo” Alvarez announced this Tuesday that he is leaving Showtime and signed a long-term deal to return to HBO.
The details of the newly signed contract between the Golden Boy fighter and HBO sports broadcasting were not announced but Canelo made it clear that this was a long-term deal with an option for fights on the big Mexican holiday weekends, which are in May and in September.
Those dates at Showtime are reserved for Floyd Mayweather Jr., who has a monopoly on those specific dates due to his mega contract with Showtime pay-per-view.
According to Canelo, the main reason why he chose to leave Showtime was to give his Mexican fans an opportunity to see him fight on those specific days.
When asked about any conflicts with Showtime, the Mexican fighter said his goal was to fight on those dates regardless of whether or not Mayweather Jr. would be putting on a pay-per-view extravaganza at the same time.
Ken Hershman, president of HBO Sports, said that everyone at HBO is happy to have Canelo back. “We are delighted to partner with Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions in presenting Canelo’s fight and events on our various platforms,” commented Hershman on reuniting with Golden boy Promotions.
The first fight broadcast on HBO for Canelo will be on December 6 when he will face Joshua Clottey, who currently holds the WBA international light middleweight title. To be fair, a fight between Canelo and Clottey would be considered by many as a tune-up fight until HBO can showcase Canelo against Miguel Cotto.
This is an encouraging sign for HBO Sports but let’s hope that this will bring forward an era of quality as opposed to quantity which is why HBO lost out fighter’s in the first place.
