Las Vegas blockbuster dates could include Cinco de Mayo bout for Canelo Alvarez

All that talk about Las Vegas losing big fights will be paused for a seven-week chunk starting March 22 that could include at least five world-title bouts.

BoxingScene learned Thursday that four fight cards are reserved on The Strip for March 22, March 29, April 5 and May 3 – the last of which is a great unknown for now.

Premier Boxing Champions-linked promoter TGB Promotions has petitioned the Nevada Athletic Commission for a May 3 opening at T-Mobile Arena that could be nothing more than a meaningless soft hold but might also be an opening that could materialize as a Cinco de Mayo-weekend reprisal for the sport’s most popular fighter, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

Amid reports that Mexico’s Alvarez is negotiating a three-fight deal with Saudi Arabia power broker Turki Alalshikh, there has been some industry speculation that four-division champion Alvarez could move toward taking a match with Cuba’s William Scull, who replaced Alvarez as IBF titleholder.

Scull, after stunningly rising to the No. 1 contender spot, claimed the belt that Alvarez vacated last year by defeating Vladimir Shishkin in Germany.

Scull would be a massive underdog in the bout, but an Alvarez victory would allow him to amplify his planned September bout with four-division and twice-undisputed champion Terence Crawford as another four-belt unification.

Two significant obstacles to Canelo in Las Vegas on May 3 exist:

1. Would Alalshikh want a Canelo-Scull fight to take place in Saudi Arabia?

2. The Ryan Garcia-Devin Haney doubleheader comeback fights are penciled in for May 2 in New York.

No fighters were listed on the TGB May 3 request.

While it seems illogical to stage two major fight shows on opposite points of the same country on consecutive days, a veteran boxing businessman said such an arrangement could fare well for the sport.

“Absolutely. Both fight cards would do well at the gate and on pay-per-view, as long as you don’t have delusions of grandeur,” the businessperson said on the condition of anonymity because of their dealings with the various representatives.

As for the more traditional Vegas arrangements, TGB/PBC will stage a March 22 non-pay-per-view Amazon Prime Video card at Mandalay Bay’s Ultra Theater headlined by unified junior middleweight titleholder Sebastian Fondora making his first defense, against Chordale Booker.

Top Rank will follow in the next two weeks with a March 29 card at the Fontainebleau and an April 5 card at The Palms.

The March 29 card, at this hour, will serve as new WBO welterweight titleholder Brian Norman Jnr’s first title defense, a rescheduled meeting against No. 6 contender Derrieck Cuevas.

Also on that card will be the women’s WBO welterweight title rematch between new belt holder Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan.

Mayer, 20-2 (5 KOs), edged England’s Ryan, 7-2-1 (3 KOs), by majority decision September 27 at Madison Square Garden in New York City in a thrilling battle that followed the pre-fight drama of someone splashing Ryan with paint as she awaited a ride to the arena outside her hotel.

The April 5 card at The Palms will be the lightweight showdown to establish who will next fight IBF titlist Vasiliy Lomachenko.

California’s No. 4-ranked Raymond Muratalla, 22-0 (17 KOs), will meet Russian-born Zaur Abdullaev, 20-1 (12 KOs), for the interim title as three-division champion Lomachenko recovers from a back injury that required a 60-day medical extension.

The April 5 show is expected to also include separate bouts featuring gifted lightweight prospect Abdullah Mason, 16-0 (14 KOs), and unbeaten 140lbs Lindolfo Delgado, 22-0 (16 KOs), of Mexico.

Top Rank has yet to formally announce the bouts.

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.