Canelo Alvarez issues cocky response to concerns about clash with UFC 306 Sphere card

Canelo Alvarez isn’t concerned about his upcoming fight clashing with UFC 306.

The Mexican superstar returns to the ring on September 14 against Edgar Berlanga at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

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On the same night, UFC 306 takes place at the Las Vegas Sphere in a card backed by Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Season.

UFC president Dana White claims he has already spent $17million (£13.2m) putting the event together and promises it will be ‘one of the greatest sporting events of all time’.

A much-anticipated UFC bantamweight title fight between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili tops the bill with a mouthwatering scrap between Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko for the UFC women’s flyweight belt set to co-headline.

Meanwhile, the main card is capped off with Brian Ortega vs Diego Lopes, Raul Rosas Jr vs Qileng Aori and Irene Aldana vs Norma Dumont.

Despite the strength of the fights on offer and the proximity of the two events, Canelo doesn’t anticipate the UFC pay-per-view will offset the interest in his next outing.

“This is different. Maybe another boxing match, but Canelo is just different,” he told Million Dollaz Worth of Game.

“I don’t care if the UFC is there, when Canelo fights it’s different.”

Canelo is no longer the undisputed super middleweight champion after being stripped of his IBF title and will only defend his WBC, WBO and WBA belts against Berlanga.

The IBF made the decision after Canelo chose to box Berlanga next rather than their mandatory challenger, William Scull.

As a result, the IBF has ordered a vacant world title fight between Scull and Vladimir Shishkin, while Canelo and Berlanga duke it out this summer for three of the four major world titles.

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Reacting to being stripped by the IBF, Canelo added: “There are levels. There are stars and there are superstars.

“They make the championship, not the championship makes them.

“Who is William Scull? I never hear about him. I’m not gonna do whatever they want.

“I’m gonna do whatever I want. Because I deserve it, because of all I have done.”

Three fights have been added to the Canelo vs Berlanga undercard so far; a WBA middleweight world title fight between Erislandy Lara and Danny Garcia, a WBA ‘interim’ super middleweight title fight between Caleb Plant and Trevor McCumby and Rolly Romero vs Manuel Jaimes.