Will Canelo Alvarez vs Kamaru Usman Crossover Fight Happen?
As the popularity of combat sports and their fighters continues to grow, so does the interest in crossover fights. When it comes to boxing and mixed martial arts, the tension between both sports has always been there. Throughout history, we’ve seen some upper echelon fighters of one sport try their hand at another.
NOTABLE CROSSOVER FIGHTS
In June of 1976, Muhammad Ali would take on Japanese professional wrestler Antonio Inoki in “A War of the Worlds”. In another crossover fight, multi-weight boxing champion James “Lights Out” Toney would take on MMA legend Randy Couture in the octagon, getting submitted in the first round. More recently, we saw boxing hall of famer Floyd Mayweather Jr. take on Connor McGregor. Mayweather stopped McGregor in ten rounds in their boxing match.
MORE ON THE HORIZON?
When it comes to boxing and mixed martial arts, there’s no one dominating their respective sports at the moment like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (57-1-2, 39KOs) and Kamaru Usman! Alvarez is a four-division world champion and currently sits as the 168 pound undisputed champion. Not only that, he’s also the face of boxing as the most marketable and sellable fighter in the sport and is considered boxing’s best pound for pound fighter.
As far as Usman goes, he’s the reigning UFC welterweight champion. In his mixed martial arts career, Usman accumulated a record of 20-1, 9 KOs. After winning the title from Tyron Woodley in March of 2019, he has since made five consecutive dominating title defenses. Itching for more, he’s on the record calling for a fight with Alvarez.
Usman’s manager, Ali Abdrlaziz, took to social media to rip Alvarez and his competition, while in the process accusing him of being afraid of losing to Usman. This would lead to a back and forth between Alvarez and Usman.
Obviously, this is fun banter. However, Alvarez knows that while Usman is a great MMA fighter, he stands little chance against him in a boxing ring and vice versa. At some point, though, Alvarez, who’s a prideful man, may agree to a fight with Usman just to show him that you don’t play with boxing. As great as Usman is, he’s not the draw that Connor McGregor was at the time of his fight with Floyd Mayweather. With that being said, I just don’t see these two ever crossing paths to fight each other.
Reading Time: 3 minutes
By: Jerrell Fletcher
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