Canelo Alvarez sees fight changed to clear path for Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn

Canelo Alvarez will no longer fight in September, clearing the way for Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn’s mega world title clash.

Alvarez was due to headline a ‘Mexico vs the World’ card in Riyadh on September 12, taking on Christian Mbilli for the WBC super-middleweight world title.

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But it has been announced that the card has now been postponed and is set to instead land at the back end of October.

It will now form part of the Riyadh Season schedule, with Alvarez to be taken away from the traditional weekend of Mexican Independence.

The showdown has now paved the way for Garcia to defend his WBC welterweight title against British superstar Benn.

‘King Ry’ was mandated to defend his prestigious title against Benn, and the pair have been sending public ultimatums to sign the respective contracts.

Now reports from Turki Alalshikh owned Ring Magazine have suggested that the showdown is close to being finalised.

And it appears that the reason Alvarez has been ousted from his date, is to clear the path for the clash, which will now instead land on September 12.

Garcia has long been promised the date, and wants to headline a show in Las Vegas.

It promises to be a mega-event on both US and British shores, and the clash could land on streaming service Netflix.

Benn vs Garcia – inside turbulent negotiations

The postponement of Alvarez’s bout finally signals that a breakthrough may have been reached in up and down talks.

Garcia’s recent promoter Oscar De La Hoya had suggested that there had been no talks as of yet.

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And he revealed that a cease-and-desist letter had been issued to Benn’s promotion Zuffa Boxing.

It threatened to collapse the clash, and the letter demanded that Golden Boy were included in any talks.

And Benn has appeared to place blame on Garcia, suggesting the champion is unpredictable.

“You don’t know who’s turning up – you don’t know if Garcia’s turning up,” Benn said.

“You don’t know if he’s going to make the fight or not, have some sort of episode. You just don’t know.

“People don’t want to be themselves in the sport of boxing, so I love it when I see a young man under fire for being who he is.

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“At least you’re true to yourself and who you are. Whether I like you or not – I don’t him – but some people do, just be who you are.”