Sherdog Boxing: The Weekly Wrap

#TBT 11yrs ago,I fought her and her name is Oscar “Golden Girl” Dela Hoya. Please leave the most disrespectful caption you can think of. https://t.co/YgPVYJq1gy pic.twitter.com/8mvLlV6HdS

— Floyd Mayweather (@FloydMayweather) October 18, 2018

Hey, @Canelo someone is salty about your record breaking contract with @DAZN_USA. Good thing we will never resort to hitting women. #DomesticAbuser #DomesticViolence #AntiDomesticViolence #Salty #FloydMayweather #SaltyFloyd #FloydSaltyMayweather #whyyoumad pic.twitter.com/tUT43eEMCi

— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) October 18, 2018

”Canelo” Alvarez Signs with DAZN for Record 365 Million Dollars

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, arguably the biggest draw in professional boxing, signed what is being called the biggest contract in the history of professional sports. Canelo will make at least 365 million dollars over the course of five years and 11 fights.

This is a huge gamble for DAZN. While between him and Anthony Joshua it gives the streaming service the two biggest stars in the boxing world, boxing is such a unique sport that any long-term contract is risky. Imagine if you signed Roy Jones Jr. to this type of deal after his win over John Ruiz. At the time, it would have made perfect sense, but within five years fans would be begging Jones to stop fighting altogether, not dying to watch his fights.

Much of the financial impact of this move will depend on the fights Canelo makes. While his bout with Fielding is unlikely to attract the casual fan, Alvarez has been talking about facing Floyd Mayweather in a rematch of their 2013 fight. If made, that fight could justify his $365 million price tag alone. DAZN has become a huge disruptor in the boxing business, and for better or worse they have gone all in on Alvarez. Whether that is a good idea or not remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: If you thought it was hard to win a decision over Alvarez before, you haven’t seen anything yet.

Artur Beterbiev to Fight Joe Smith in December

Reports are that Joe Smith, the American boxer best known for knocking out Bernard Hopkins while still a Local 66 union laborer will be the next to face Artur Beterbiev, the Russian knockout artist who stopped Callum Johnson just a few weeks ago. Since his win over Hopkins, Smith has lost a unanimous decision to Cuba’s Sullivan Barrera and bounced back with an easy win over relative nobody Melvin Russell. Rumors are that the fight will take place in late December, possibly on the undercard of Canelo Alvarez’s fight with Rocky Fielding.

Dmitry Bivol to Fight Jean Pascal on HBO Nov. 24

Although HBO has officially bailed on the boxing business, they are planning a few more cards before they officially stop broadcasting the sport (rumors are they want to show a Munguia fight and a Chocalatito fight at some point as well). One of those final cards will be Dmitry Bivol’s defense of his WBA light heavyweight title against Jean Pascal in Atlantic City. Jean Pascal was once a very good fighter, having won the WBC and IBF light heavyweight titles, but, time has not been kind to the Canadian.

Pascal has lost four of his last eight fights, although these losses have come to elite fighters like Eleider “Storm” Alvarez, Sergey Kovalev and Bernard Hopkins. This string of losses forced Pascal to retire, until he decided to come out of retirement to fight MMA fighter/professional hockey enforcer Steve Bosse in an embarrassing spectacle. Dmitry Bivol is a special talent in the prime of his career, and Jean Pascal let a hockey enforcer break his jaw. This will not go well for the Canadian.

Adrien Broner to Fight Manny Pacquiao in January

Manny Pacquiao made it official that he would be fighting Adrien “About Billions but not about Uber” Broner, announcing the fight will take place on Jan. 12 or 19, most likely in Las Vegas. Broner lost to Mikey Garcia and fought to a draw against Jessie Vargas in his last two fights, while Pacquiao bounced back from his controversial decision loss to Jeff Horn by stopping Lucas Matthysse in July. While Broner never became the fighter he was supposed to, this is a very dangerous fight for Manny to take while waiting for the Floyd Mayweather rematch. Adrien Broner once said that he was the closest thing to Floyd Mayweather, and even though nobody believes that, it may be the reasoning behind Pacquiao taking this matchup.

Isaac Dogboe Fighting Emanuel Navarrete on Lomachenko-Pedraza Undercard

If you needed more of a reason to head to Madison Square Garden on Dec. 8 to watch Vasyl Lomachenko, Top Rank gave you one this week by announcing rising Ghanian star and legitimate African royalty Isaac Dogboe will be fighting hard-punching Mexican Emanuel Navarrete. Navarrete is 25-1 with 22 knockouts and hasn’t lost since 2012. Dogboe, on the other hand is 20-0 with 14 knockouts, but announced himself as a major force at super bantamweight when he stopped the previously unstoppable Hidenori Otake in the very first round back in August.

Mayweather-Khabib Talks Somehow Get Crazier

Khabib Nurgamedov’s father said this week that he believes his son would have a chance against Mayweather in a boxing ring and stated that he’d like to see his son trained by both Mike Tyson and Vasyl Lomachenko’s father Anatoly. Watching Anatoly try to convince Tyson that Khabib should be doing Ukranian folk dancing instead of the slip bag would be worth the price of admission alone.

Mayweather somehow believes he would be getting $200 million guaranteed for the fight and indicated he’s open to a rematch with Conor Mcgregor as well, saying that because of the crazy numbers fighting the biggest stars of MMA brings in, he’d like to face McGregor after he beats Khabib.

McGregor is also somehow still talking about returning to the boxing world. His trainer, John Kavanagh, was quoted saying that the idea of Mcgregor facing Paulie Malignaggi under boxing rules was “not out of the realm of possibility.” Let’s hope it is.

De La Hoya and Mayweather Squabble on Twitter for No Good Reason

And finally, on twitter this week Floyd Mayweather posted the infamous photo of Oscar De La Hoya in drag, along with the caption “TBT 11yrs ago, I fought her and her name is Oscar ‘Golden Girl’ Dela Hoya. Please leave the most disrespectful caption you can think of.” In response, De La Hoya said that Floyd was just jealous of the money Canelo was making and brought up Floyd’s domestic violence conviction. He wrote “Hey, @Canelo someone is salty about your record-breaking contract with @DAZN_USA. Good thing we will never resort to hitting women.”

To recap, Floyd Mayweather posted a picture of a guy he already beat up dressed as a woman. Oscar responded by mocking Floyd for beating up women, and Floyd somehow didn’t make the obvious connection! It appears that if you leave yourself wide open for a counter right hand, Floyd is all over it. If you leave yourself wide open for a clever retort, Floyd is lost.