Canelo Alvarez return on May 2 currently unclear due to coronavirus

Canelo Alvarez is currently slated to get back into the ring on May 2 in Las Vegas, and while it hasn’t been made 100 percent official yet, it’s expected he’d be facing WBO super middleweight titleholder Billy Joe Saunders.

But like everything else in boxing, sports, and entertainment right now, the situation is now up in the air due to coronavirus concerns.

Golden Boy’s Eric Gomez told ESPN that they’re speaking with officials in Nevada and the MGM Grand, and that they’ve had a discussion with DAZN about the situation, too. Alvarez is DAZN’s biggest star and his events are marquee attractions for the service.

We’ve already seen Top Rank cancel two shows for Saturday and Tuesday night, PBC cancel their Saturday night show, Golden Boy and DAZN losing a pair of California cards, and Montreal shutting down three events, along with the likelihood of Briedis-Dorticos next Saturday being lost in Latvia.

Every event with Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KO) is a major event for boxing, and while a matchup with Saunders (29-0, 14 KO) wouldn’t be among his biggest, it’s still a big show. That also means that you want the proper ability to promote the event and sell tickets and all that, and as we’re now in mid-March and there is mass uncertainty about when the sports world might get back to normal, penciling Alvarez in officially for May 2 at this point could be a really big risk, logistically speaking.

As with everything, we just don’t know what’s going to happen here. This is a disruption unlike anything we’ve seen in sports history, really, and the situation is rapidly developing all over the world. So we’ll have to wait and see what goes down with this event, just like everything else on the schedule right now.