Canelo Alvarez to fight Dmitry Bivol on May 7

Canelo Alvarez, the world’s top boxer, will continue his record run in the history books when he faces WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol on May 7. No venue has been announced, though T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas is likely to be it.

ESPN.com first reported the news.

Alvarez, who in November stopped Caleb Plant to become the undisputed super middleweight champion and only undisputed champion from Mexico, will also likely fight bitter rival Gennadiy Golovkin in September, though the Golovkin fight is not finalized. Golovkin is scheduled to fight WBA middleweight champion Ryoto Murata in Japan, but getting that fight done has been difficult because of COVID-19 restrictions in Japan.

The Alvarez-Bivol fight and the Alvarez-Golovkin fight — if it is finalized as expected — will be streamed on DAZN, though likely as pay-per-views and not part of the subscription service.

Bivol is 19-0 with 11 knockouts. He will be the third consecutive unbeaten world champion Alvarez has faced and the fourth in his last five bouts. Only Avni Yildirim, who was Alvarez's mandatory, did not have a perfect record among his last four opponents.

Plant was 21-0, Billy Joe Saunders 30-0 and Callum Smith 27-0 at the time they fought Alvarez. Adding Bivol and Yildirim, that makes Alvarez’s last five opponents 118-2 at the time he met them.

Golovkin, who is heavily favored to defeat Murata, is 41-1-1, with his defeat and draw both coming in bouts against Alvarez.

Alvarez also considered a bout with WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo, who is 32-0, for his May 7 bout in talks with the Premier Boxing Champions. But he ultimately decided on the DAZN package, which could bring him upward of $100 million for the two bouts.