Canelo Alvarez has made it official: he will fight Jaime Munguia in the main event of a pay-per-view on May 4 in Las Vegas.

“Mexicans on the war cry,” Canelo wrote on social media. “See you May 4th at T-Mobile in Las Vegas.”

The poster artwork that Alvarez shared with the announcement features the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) and Prime Video logos, which also confirms that after parting ways with PBC after one fight of his three-fight contract, he remains with the team for at least some time after this fight.

Reports surfaced on Thursday that the Canelo-Munguia fight was already being finalized and that it would be Canelo (60-2-2, 39 KOs) working with PBC on a one-fight deal, but DAZN would also be willing to carry the fight on pay-per-view, which really adds to the number of outlets available and seems like a reasonable deal overall.

For example, we’ve seen both DAZN and ESPN+ enable pay-per-view event sales in the recent past, and this would be similar across both streaming platforms.

Munguia (43-0, 34 KO) will face Canelo for the undisputed super middleweight title.

We previously reported that Jaron “Boots” Ennis would defend his IBF welterweight title in the main event against Cody Crowley.

Francis Ngannou was crushed by Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia on Friday, brutally knocked out in the second round of his second professional boxing fight.

The former UFC heavyweight champion went down three times, including a brutal final right hand that ended it all, and it was a much different experience to last October when he faced Tyson Fury and lost a 10-round split decision.

“I’m sorry guys, I let you all down,” Ngannou said. “Today was a bad day at the office, but tomorrow will be a different day. Thanks for all the love.”

Ngannou is a likeable guy, at least when it comes to his boxing efforts. Confident, but not arrogant. He clearly took it seriously and tried to do his best. Delusional? Sure, but in some ways—not all—that’s a good, even necessary thing for any professional fighter to be. You have to believe you can win to have a chance.

Against Tyson Fury, who was treating this all as “a bit of fun” and clearly hadn’t trained much, Ngannou shocked the world even without a win. Not only was Fury out of shape and noticeably cushioned even for him – he wasn’t exactly a “lovely body” guy – but then he took a comically bad approach, trying to lean in and clinch with someone who, by pedigree, was significantly better than Fury at that sort of thing, not to mention the fact that Ngannou is much stronger physically.

Ngannou kind of bullied Fury and dropped him once. Judging by how boxing fights are actually scored, I thought Fury won, but it was one of the most uninspiring wins you’ll ever see. And the real winner was really Francis Ngannou, who shouldn’t have been able to compete with Tyson Fury like that.

On Friday, the chickens came home to roost against Anthony Joshua. To be fair, Joshua did what a decent world-class boxer should do against someone who is recent to the craft. Ngannou was actually doing well in the first round until an ill-advised switch to southpaw saw him slammed to the canvas in brief order.

Changing attitude is something that very few seasoned professionals can do well at the highest level; it’s very, very hard to do well. Ngannou’s attempt against Joshua is an example of the downside of the aforementioned necessary illusion. At best, he just didn’t understand that he wasn’t good enough to do it because no one showed him what a bad idea that was. AJ helped him figure that out quickly.

Ngannou never went back to being a southpaw, but he didn’t get many opportunities either. When he got knocked down in the first round, Joshua saw everything he wanted to see. He’s a three-belt heavyweight champion as a pro and an Olympic gold medalist 12 years ago. I tend to agree with John Fury that Joshua has learned on the job and gotten better at a lot of things over time, and the recent look he got in training camp over the last few years has also improved him.

In the second round, Joshua waited for his chance. He dropped Ngannou for the second time and realistically, referee Ricky Gonzalez could have stopped the fight at that point. When the action resumed, Ngannou sat idle and AJ didn’t cheat.

Right hand. Ballgame — on the way to pure devastation.

After the dust settled, Ngannou was being urged to continue his boxing career by Joshua (28-3, 25 KOs), but the 37-year-old is currently 0-2 and this kind of one-sided beating will significantly reduce his marketability as a professional boxer.

So should Ngannou keep boxing?

The brief answer is yes, at least if the money is there. He signed with MMA promotion PFL after a bitter split with UFC, but he hasn’t fought in the sport in more than two years, and at his age, such a long layoff from any competition risks seeing you come back, having lost “it” in the process.

But who would the money be against? If the Saudis – who don’t care about money like a typical fight promoter, because they have an infinite supply of it – pay for Ngannou vs. Deontay Wilder, there’s a monstrous plot there, even if Wilder is coming off a disastrous performance against Joseph Parker in December and has never been less attractive on the market. Again, it doesn’t matter to the Saudis any more than it does to Eddie Hearn, Frank Warren or someone who invests their own money, but it doesn’t matter either NO material. And if not Deontay, then who?

The difficult truth is that there are far more professional boxers than just the top names that Ngannou could get fired up against. When the idea of ​​him taking up boxing was first floated a few years ago, he met with Eddie Hearn, who wanted to push him straight into a fight with Joshua. At the time, Joshua wasn’t interested in a “gimmick” fight.

The reason Hearn wanted to make the Joshua vs. Ngannou fight happen immediately was plain, and he admitted it openly: if Ngannou tried to “get his feet damp” by fighting some weaker professional boxer, he could simply lose and squander his chances of making a ton of money over the course of at least a single fight.

That’s true now. If Ngannou tries to fight anyone above the total score, to get one or two wins in the ring, he has a very high risk of just losing, and losing at a level far below Fury and Joshua. Someone like Michael Coffie or Faiga Opelu, not some top names or contenders, could just crush him. And then what?

Ngannou continuing to box in this manner carries a great risk, not only to his career in the sweet science, but to whatever is left of his MMA career. This loss, the manner in which it happened, will sting for some time. Ngannou is proud, and while rational logic says he has nothing to be ashamed of for the way his boxing “career” has turned out, rational logic is for those on the outside. He made it happen. The money will ease his part, but it is also on the verge of being significantly diminished, if not dried up, and at his age, time is running out for him to earn more in gigantic chunks.

The decision Ngannou makes about his future is crucial. And I’m still at least a little interested, because he’s easily made me a fan of both sports.

Both Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker picked up impressive victories in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia last weekend in what could prove to be the most vital wins of their careers.

Parker – despite twice trying the canvas – outboxed a tired and often timid Zhilei Zhang. The Kiwi was disciplined and effective right from the start throughout the 36 minutes of action, and under the watchful eye of Andy Lee, he was able to maintain his composure and take risks despite losing both rounds 10-8 in the fight. Zhang’s quick hands won out on a few occasions, but Parker’s ability to smother most of those attacks with his pointed reflexes and quick footwork negated any real threat of stopping the gigantic Chinese heavyweight.

This was Parker’s fifth fight since the start of 2023, and his rhythm and winning dynamics were on display at the Kingdom Arena.

We often quickly judge a heavyweight after a loss, consigning him to the growing scrapyard of former gigantic threats in the division. Perhaps this is because he lacks the opportunity to move up a weight class like the weight classes below. A welterweight’s destitute performance, for example, can easily – and often be attributed to a tough weight cut or being outgrown in the division; he gets a tidy slate when he resumes his career in pastures modern.

It’s gratifying to see such marked progress from the heavyweight and with his modern coaching team headed up by the excellent and experienced Andy Lee, the increased activity is a major factor in the modern and improved performances.

Wins over Deontay Wilder and Zhilei Zhang in the space of three-and-a-half months have catapulted Parker into the division’s top four, and he now looks most worthy of another title shot after Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua jostle for medal spots.

The same goes for Anthony Joshua. Now, with Ben Davison at his side, Joshua has fought four times in 12 months and is as close as we ever thought he would be to regaining his best form in the division. AJ has regained the earth-shattering power that allowed him to scuttle through the early stages of his pro career, stopping Otto Wallin and Francis Ngannou in a combined seven rounds – something his domestic foe Tyson Fury was unable to do on both occasions.

He said it himself before this weekend’s competition. “This is the first time since 2017 that I’ve had three fights in a row, and being consistent has paid off again,” he said. “That’s why fighters do so well on their way to the top, because they fight every other week and they look amazing. Once you get to the top, everything slows down and the only way out is retirement. I’m trying to rebuild myself and get that activity.”

It has become the norm for many champions to fight once, maybe twice, per calendar year, especially in the heavier weights. And rarely is it because of the desire of the individual fighter. Belt politics, obligation, and teams playing hardball with other champions often lead to delay after delay when you are sitting on the mountaintop, but in a sport where you are protecting your undefeated record used most importantly, we may be seeing the beginning of a shift towards risk rewarding.

There is no doubt that Saudi Arabia’s injection of cash into the sport helps with this level of activity. Their desire to cleanse the sport of their terrible human rights record is unquenchable and however long this obsession with boxing (and snooker, Formula 1, golf, WWE and football) lasts, the more opportunities, especially for heavyweights, to fight in what could become a carousel division will be available.

Beyond the bigger picture, it’s tough not to be pleased with the progress Parker and Joshua have shown over the past 15 months. If more fighters follow in their footsteps, who knows how the heavyweight landscape could look.