CANELO ALVAREZ and Caleb Plant's eagerly awaited showdown will not be delayed this weekend, despite clashing with a massive UFC card.
The undisputed super-middleweight champion fight between the pound-for-pound king and the American will be held at the same time at Madison Square Garden's UFC 268 event.
Canelo Alvarez and Caleb Plant will be trying to unify super-middleweight against each other this weekend
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Showtime has no plans to reschedule the pair's ringwalks to make room for mixed martial arts at The Garden.
Stephen Espinoza, Showtime Sports president, stated to ESPN that Showtime Sports is not concerned about the timing of any competing events.
"Canelo Alvarez, the No.1 boxer at the box office, is Canelo Alvarez.
We wouldn't do his event justice if he was unable to be in the arena and on TV due to a delay that would compromise the viewer experience and fan experience for another event taking place across the country.
Espinoza expects some crossover, but is positive Canelo will be able to enjoy Canelo's historic fight.
He stated that he was not saying that combat sports that are performed on the same night will never draw attention to our audience.
Free Bets: Get more than PS2,000 in NEW CUSTOMER DEALS"But I don't believe there are Canelo fans that are concerned about Colby Covington or vice versa in terms of the overlap fan appeal.
"Undoubtedly, there's some crossover.
"But, if you look at our events and the demographics, it's not something we worry about losing [our] audiences."
Teddy Atlas, a renowned pundit who is also a coach, believes that many boxing fans will tune into Kamaru Usman's fight against bitter rival Colby Covington.
He stated, "Those fans will say: "I'm going over where I can guarantee a competitive fight. I'm willing to take the sure thing and guess what else? The undercard.
Boxing fans are not stupid. I have good news for promoters: The gig has started.
"They have been through some of the crap undercards, and guess what? The UFC's undercard has no crap.
"Everyone of those battles can be life-or-death, and every one of them can be a war."
This is the second consecutive year that a Canelo fight was held on the same night of a UFC pay per view event.
In November 2019, Sergei Kovalev, the Mexican light-heavyweight champion, clashed with Jorge Masvidal in UFC 244's clash with Nate Diaz.
That night, Golden Boy decided to postpone the fight until after the conclusion BMF fight.
This delay resulted in Canelo being fully dressed and ready to go less than an hour before his 11th round KO of Russian.
