While it may not be a third fight against Gennady Golovkin, Canelo Alvarez will face what may be his toughest available opponent today in Daniel Jacobs in a mega middleweight title unification.
The two 160-pound champions are set to face off in Las Vegas on May 4 with the WBA "Super," WBC and IBF titles on the line. The title bout is set to headline a card from the T-Mobile Arena that will be streamed on DAZN in the United States.
Alvarez, arguably the biggest star in boxing today, has already accumulated a Hall of Fame-worthy resume, having fought, and defeated, the likes of Golovkin, Miguel Cotto, Erislandy Lara and Shane Mosley among others. Now Alvarez, who has won titles at junior middleweight, middleweight and a secondary title at super middleweight, is looking to add another impressive name to his list of opponents as his goal is not to become an all-time great and potentially put himself in the conversation of greatest Mexican boxer in history.
Although Alvarez elected to move up in weight in his last fight back in December against Rocky Fielding, his main focus is to continue his reign as the unified middleweight champion. With Alvarez and Golovkin both signed to multi-year deals to fight exclusively on DAZN, the two middleweight stars could do battle one more time, giving Alvarez another opportunity to show the boxing world he is the premier middleweight today, but first he has to get past Jacobs.
Jacobs, on the other hand, has been on the road to getting another big middleweight fight ever since fight against Golovkin back in March 2017. The New York native has an inspiring story of adversity and triumph over said adversity. Jacobs was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, in 2011. His career was nearly halted after he was told he might never fight again. Despite the grim news, Jacobs, confined to a wheelchair for many months, worked his way back to a full recovery and returned to the ring less than two years after his diagnosis.
Jacobs nearly stunned the world when he faced Golovkin in 2017, but narrowly lost a 12-round decision when some pundits within the sport still believe that Jacobs had a strong case for winning that fight. Since then, Jacobs has gone on to work his way back to contention with wins over Luis Arias and Maciej Sulecki. When Jacobs was presented with the opportunity to win another middleweight title, he took advantage of that title shot and defeated Sergiy Derevyanchenko to become the IBF middleweight champion, setting up the fight against Alvarez.
The card will feature of noteworthy fighters from Golden Boy Promotions, the same company that promotes Alvarez. Some of the fighters scheduled for the fight include Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Joseph Diaz Jr. competing in separate fights. While there are a few interesting fights on the undercard, the event has taken a couple of hits in recent weeks due to injuries.
Former middleweight champion David Lemieux was originally supposed to face John Ryder in the co-feature bout for the interim WBA super middleweight title, but Lemieux hurt his right hand and had to withdraw from the fight. In Lemieux's place is Bilal Akkawy, an undefeated Australian fighter who has flown under the radar in recent months, but has emerged as a rising contender at 168 parts thanks in part to the affiliation with trainer Eddy Reynoso, who also trains Alvarez.
Another fighter who had to withdraw from the card is junior welterweight contender Pablo Cesar Cano, also from an injury to his right hand. Cano was supposed to defend his WBC International Silver title, but the injury forced him to withdraw and not allow him to capitalize on the massive wave of momentum he received from his stunning first-round upset win over Jorge Linares back in January.
That isn't to say the undercard isn't unwatchable. Quite the contrary, the fighters still on the card are a few to keep an eye on. As previously mentioned, Ortiz and Diaz are within a couple of fights from potentially challenging for a world title and a win on one of the biggest cards of 2019 would elevate their status even more.
Below is the full card taking place at the T-Mobile Arena on May 4. The undercard broadcast is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. ET on DAZN with the main card set to start at 9 p.m. ET, also on DAZN:
- Canelo Alvarez vs. Daniel Jacobs: Unified WBA "Super," WBC and WBC Middleweight Titles
- Vergil Ortiz Jr. vs. Mauricio Herrera
- John Ryder vs. Bilal Akkawy: Interim WBA Super Middleweight Title
- Joseph Diaz Jr. vs. Freddy Fonseca: WBA Gold Super Featherweight title
- Sadam Ali vs. Anthony Young: USNBC Silver Welterweight Title
- Lamont Roach Jr. vs. Jonathan Oquendo: Unified WBO International and NABO Super Featherweight Titles
- Alexis Espino vs. Billy Wagner
Tale of the tape:
Canelo Alvarez:
- Record: 51-1-2 (35 KO)
- Age: 28
- Height: 5'9"
- Reach: 70.5"
- Titles Won: WBC Junior Middleweight, WBA Junior Middleweight, WBO Junior Middleweight, Ring Magazine Junior Middleweight, Lineal Middleweight, WBA "Super" Middleweight, WBC Middleweight, Ring Magazine Middleweight, Lineal Middleweight, WBA "Regular" Super Middleweight Titles
- Notable Fights: Gennady Golovkin, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Erislandy Lara, Amir Khan, Liam Smith, Alfredo Angulo, Austin Trout
Daniel Jacobs:
- Record: 35-2 (29 KO)
- Age: 32
- Height: 5'11.5"
- Reach: 73"
- Titles Won: WBA "Regular" Middleweight, IBF Middleweight Titles
- Notable Fights: Gennady Golovkin, Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Sergio Mora, Peter Quillin, Caleb Truax, Dmitry Pirog
Fightful will have live coverage of the entire card.
