5 Best Opponents for Canelo Alvarez’s Next Fight

Being Canelo Alvarez means never having to beg for a fight.

As the reigning four-belt champion at 168 pounds and long-time claimant to the sport’s undisputed pay-per-view title, the cinnamon-haired Mexican star has the unique ability to dictate nearly every detail from opponent to location to TV provider.

He returned from an injury-prompted eight-month hiatus to retake center stage Saturday night in his home country, where he dispatched unheralded challenger John Ryder by unanimous decision to keep his cache of jewelry and cue up speculation about his next foe.

The winner earned scores of 120-107 and 118-109 (twice) from the three judges.

Alvarez is expected to compete again in four months, resuming his preferred schedule of fighting both in early May and mid-September—alongside yearly celebrations of Mexico’s defeat of invading French troops on May 5, 1862, and its declaration of independence from Spain on September 16, 1810—for the sixth time in the last 13 years.

The B/R combat team surveyed the landscape to determine the best possible co-stars for his next appearance and came up with a list of five best suited to fit the bill. Take a look at what we came up with, and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments section.

These lists are typically delivered from Nos. 5 to 1.

But we’ll go in ascending order this time, if for no other reason than Dmitry Bivol is the opponent whom Alvarez has specifically and publicly declared is his prime target.

Because they have history together.

And in Alvarez’s mind, at least, unfinished business.

Bivol was a skilled but largely unappreciated operator a year ago when Alvarez decided he’d move up to 175 pounds to challenge the unbeaten Russian for the WBA share of the light heavyweight kingdom Bivol had overseen in full-fledged fashion since 2019.

Twelve rounds later, Alvarez had suffered his first defeat since 2013 and kindled the sort of rivalry—at least from his perspective—he’d not experienced outside of a multi-fight series with Gennadiy Golovkin that stretched from 2017 to 2022.

So, if the superstar gets his way, Bivol’s got next later this summer.

“Right now,” he told DAZN’s Chris Mannix, “my short-term goal is a fight with Dmitry Bivol, and then we’ll see.”

The smart money, with good reason, is on Bivol.

So the remaining names on this list are best framed as conditional if that rematch doesn’t get made right away or subsequent to a would-be Alvarez victory if it does.

Either way, no name surpasses David Benavidez’s.

The 26-year-old Arizonan with Mexican roots has never been a hotter commodity than he is these days, thanks to two previous reigns as the WBC’s champion at 168 pounds and a recent defeat of ex-champ (and loser to Alvarez) Caleb Plant that made him the sanctioning body’s mandatory challenger to the title Alvarez now holds.

He’s unbeaten at 27-0 with 23 KOs. He’s menacing at 6’2″ with a 74.5-inch reach.

And he’s eager for a showdown, as he stated clearly after the Pl