Talks for an undisputed world super middleweight title fight between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Caleb Plant are already under way with Eddie Hearn leading the negotiations on behalf of Alvarez. 

The Mexican’s victory over Billy Joe Saunders in Texas last weekend, which saw him add the WBO title to the WBC and WBA titles he already held, was the last of his short-term contract with Hearn’s Matchroom group. 

But while Hearn has a longterm deal with DAZN, he says that is not certain to be the destination of any fight. Plant, the IBF champion, is promoted by Premier Boxing Champions [PBC] and his past six fights have been screened on Fox. 

“Canelo has asked me to go and arrange this fight for him,” Hearn told BoxingScene.com. “I can go on any platform with Canelo, but DAZN are going to make a major play.  

“[PBC founder Al] Haymon might turn around and say I’m not letting Plant fight on DAZN, even though the offer might be huge. If he does, Canelo has got to make his call, got to look at the Fox offer and go from there.” 

Since ending his longterm deal with DAZN last year, Alvarez is not contracted to any promoter or network, something Hearn believes works well for him in the present climate. 

“Probably only him and AJ (Anthony Joshua) have that ability to have a free agency status with networks, because you want the security. But those guys are so huge that they will almost get better deals fight by fight.” 

Whether or not a deal with Plant can be agreed, the Mexican Independence Day weekend in September remains the likely date for Alvarez’s next fight, as he remains on target to box four times in 2021. 

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.