Boxing
Who should Canelo Alvarez fight next? Bernard Hopkins is fond of one opponent, but doesn't like idea of GGG trilogy
The million-dollar question heading into the latter half 2020 is who will Canelo Alvarez face in his 2020 debut?
Names such as WBA super middleweight champion Callum Smith and John Ryder have been discussed as possibilities to face Alvarez on Sept. 12. A different name, however, was brought up by former two-division world champion Bernard Hopkins, who is an executive at Alvarez's promotional team at Golden Boy.
"I think its (Jason) Quigley," Hopkins said during a recent appearance on the "Ak and Barak Show". "To me, I like that style. I like that fight. Plus, I like that fight for now going into (20)21."
Quigley (18-1, 14 KOs) turned professional in 2014 and came out of the gates winning his first 16 fights before losing via ninth-round stoppage to Tureano Johnson in July 2019. The Irish middleweight has bounced back with two straight knockout wins over Abraham Cordero and Fernando Marin.
Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) last fought in November when he moved up two weight classes to 175 pounds and notched an 11th-round KO over Sergey Kovalev to claim the IBF title. The Mexican superstar had been set to face WBO super middleweight champion Billie Joe Saunders in May. It didn't come to fruition due to COVID-19 putting the brakes on not only the fight but also the sport as a whole.
One fighter Hopkins doesn't want his star to face is Gennadiy Golovkin. Alvarez and Golovkin battled to a split draw in September 2017, and then the former won a narrow majority decision one year later. Negotiations for a third fight have been unsuccessful. Hopkins feels a trilogy fight would prove to be easier than the second time around.
"That would be an easy fight," Hopkins said. "Take GGG out of it. That would be an easy fight for him. The second fight was to me was Canelo had his number. A third fight, which I really don't want to see it, would be 'I got your phone number on the second fight, and I'm going to call you on the third one.'
"It would be GGG getting the huge payday before he called it good night. I don't think he should personally waste his time with that."
