According to promoter Eddie Hearn, who currently works with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, the pound-for-pound fighter believes he can beat Oleskandr Usyk, who currently holds the WBO, IBF, IBO and WBA heavyweight titles.
Canelo has captured world titles at junior middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight.
He retains next Saturday night, against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol.
Earlier this year, there was talk of Canelo making the jump up to the cruiserweight division to challenge WBC world champion Ilunga Makabu. During last year’s WBC convention in Mexico, Canelo received permission from the sanctioning body to challenge for that title.
Canelo finally decided to go in another direction by taking on Bivol on May 7. If Canelo wins, he will return to super middleweight to defend his undisputed crown against Gennadiy Golovkin in September.
Usyk will defend his heavyweight titles against Anthony Joshua in a rematch on a date in July.
Canelo told Hearn that he thinks he can beat Usyk for the heavyweight straps, if the fight was made at a catchweight of 201 pounds, which is a pound over the cruiserweight limit.
“When it comes to mentality and winning, he really believes he can beat Oleksandr Usyk for the world heavyweight title,” Hearn told Joe.co.uk.
“He told me ‘if you can make that fight a pound over cruiserweight, which obviously Usyk was a cruiserweight, I’ll beat him.’
“I find it hard not to believe him. Sometimes the only way someone like Canelo Alvarez or Vasyl Lomachenko gets beat is when they keep moving up in weight outside of where they should be. Maybe that’s how Canelo Alvarez gets beaten, (when) it’s too big of a challenge.”
Usyk’s manager, Egis Klimas, indicates that his fighter would be very willing to drop to 201 pounds for such a fight, but also cautions that Canelo should focus on the task at hand with Bivol.
