If UFC's Usman secures a boxing match with Canelo, he'd be a winner before it began

This is a column by Morgan Campbell, who writes opinion for CBC Sports. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.

Last Saturday night featured the logjam that the Ultimate Fighting Championship and major boxing promoters work carefully to avoid: marquee pay-per-view events trying to co-exist.

In Las Vegas, Saul "Canelo" Alvarez made history, dispatching Caleb Plant over 11 rounds to become the undisputed world champion in boxing's super-middleweight division. Across the country, at Madison Square Garden, welterweight champion Kamaru Usman punctuated UFC 268 with a five-round decision win over longtime rival Colby Covington.

If, as a fight fan, you felt conflicted, don't feel guilty about it. It's normal. UFC president and longtime boxing fan Dana White solved the problem by streaming the Alvarez fight Octagon-side at MSG. Afterward both headliners had to answer the question we only ask fighters in moments like this.

What's next?

As Atlanta players sprayed each other with champagne in the wake of their six-game World Series win over the Houston Astros, nobody asked whether they planned to win next year's final in a sweep? When Eliud Kipchoge ran 2:01:39 to set a marathon world record, we didn't ask how soon he planned to run a triathlon.

In most other settings, we — sports fans, but, especially, the media — let big accomplishments breathe, and give athletes time and space to savour them. There'll be another race, and another baseball season, and we can address them when they approach. For most athletes, we want to know how the triumph feels in the moment.

But we've decided fighters are only as good as the fight they want next, so we ask about it, often with answers in mind. Don't say you want a relatively easy fight, because in our memories, legends fought other legends every time out. 

Wait, didn't Sugar Ray Leonard squeeze Dave "Boy" Green between Wilfred Benitez and Roberto Duran? Yes. But that was him, and that was then. Now we want 50-50 fights until you lose. And don't dare say you need to rest, because fighters fight.

But Saturday night, Alvarez, minutes after his fourth win in 11 months, a hectic pace for a fighter at his level, said he wouldn't even consider his next bout until January.

"I'll take a little rest," Alvarez said. "I deserve it."

And Usman?

He said he wanted Alvarez, even though they compete in different sports.

"I want to do something that scares me," Usman told reporters after his fight, referring to a match with Alvarez. "Pound-for-pound MMA, pound-for-pound boxing, that scares me. I'm down for those challenges. Who in the world wouldn't want to see that?"