Canelo Alvarez finalizing deal to face Sergey Kovalev, November 2

According to report by Mike Coppinger, Canelo Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KOs) is in the midst of closing a deal to move up to light heavyweight to challenge Sergey Kovalev (34-3-1, 29 KOs) for his WBO title. The two fighters have been linked to one another for a little while now, so this news certainly isn’t out of left field. The fight is being planned for November 2nd in a card that will stream live on DAZN.

Coppinger would later clarify that this fight actually won’t be held at the T-Mobile Arena with it already booked on that date, but did say it will be in Las Vegas nonetheless.

Canelo, 29, is most recently coming off a unanimous decision win over Daniel Jacobs this May to unify middleweight titles. Canelo would, however, be stripped of the IBF title he won in pretty quick fashion after failing to reach an agreement to face mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Derveyanchenko will now take on Gennady Golovkin for that vacant title, after Canelo made it clear he wasn’t interested in pursuing a third fight with Golovkin.

On the other hand Kovalev, 36, just recently survived a late scare against Anthony Yarde a couple of weeks ago to retain his WBO world title. The fact is, though, this could prove to be an opportune moment for Canelo to make the leap to challenge for a world title in yet another weight class. Kovalev, while still technically proficient, has shown to be seriously vulnerable to the body — which just so happens to be Canelo’s bread and butter.

If this fight crosses the finish line in negotiations, as is appears it will, and assuming there will be no catchweight bullshit for the title, how many of you would favor Kovalev to still be holding onto his title by Thanksgiving?