Sources - Canelo Alvarez, Dmitry Bivol finalize deal for a May 7 light heavyweight title fight

Canelo Alvarez and Dmitry Bivol have finalized a deal for a May 7 fight for Bivol's light heavyweight title, sources told ESPN on Friday. An announcement is imminent for the DAZN pay-per-view event.

Canelo is the undisputed super middleweight champion but will return to 175 pounds for the fight. In his lone light heavyweight fight, he scored a brutal 11th-round KO of Sergey Kovalev in November 2019.

Alvarez's deal with Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing is for two fights, sources said. The second fight, assuming he defeats Bivol, will see the Mexican star return to 168 pounds for a highly anticipated trilogy fight against Gennadiy Golovkin on Sept. 17, per sources.

GGG is in the process of finalizing his deal for the bout, sources said. First, he'll meet Ryoto Murata in April in Japan in a middleweight title unification on DAZN. If Golovkin prevails, he'll then move up to 168 for the third meeting with his bitter rival on DAZN PPV, sources said.

The other package that was presented to Alvarez, ESPN's No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer, came from PBC. Al Haymon offered Alvarez a one-fight deal worth upward of $45 million for a May 7 defense of his undisputed super middleweight championship against Jermall Charlo, sources said. Another PBC offer extended to Alvarez, 31, was for two fights and more than $100 million for a May fight with Charlo and a September bout with David Benavidez, sources said.

Instead, Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) chose the DAZN route, a deal that will guarantee him more than $85 million, including what figures to be a financial windfall on the upside for the GGG bout. Canelo fought Golovkin twice for middleweight supremacy, and both bouts were commercial bonanzas. Each produced over $20 million in gate receipts and