Super middleweight champion Callum Smith is hoping to land a money fight with middleweight titleholder Canelo Alvarez, and trainer Joe Gallagher says he’s been told by promoter Eddie Hearn that there’s a chance it happens in December, but not September.

“Last time I spoke to Eddie, he said there was a possibility, it could be December. Definitely isn’t this September, but I just think to myself ‘Who would Canelo fight, if it wasn’t this September?’ He has to defend that super middleweight belt of his that he’s got, otherwise it becomes vacant.”

It’s somewhat precious that Gallagher thinks the WBA would strip Canelo Alvarez of a belt on a technicality, but either way, Gallagher wants Smith (26-0, 19 KO) back in September, then again in December.

Canelo did fight September and December of 2018, but he took a — let’s be honest — easy fight in December against Rocky Fielding, not something that was a serious risk for him. It’s not impossible, of course, what with the DAZN money behind him these days, but Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KO) fighting, in theory, Daniel Jacobs, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Callum Smith in this calendar year would be wildly inconsistent with modern superstardom standards.

But there’s certainly no guarantee we get Canelo-GGG III in September, either. We’ll see with it all, but there remains plenty of smoke around a potential Canelo-Callum Smith fight, and physically, it is an interesting one.

Alvarez is set to return on Sept. 14, whatever the fight winds up being.