Undisputed super-middleweight champion and arguable ‘face of boxing’, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, will be forced to make a huge decision in the coming days, with his plans for 2024 expected to be derailed by an unlikely contender that few anticipated he would face.
After an eyebrow-raising run of performances since defeat to Dmitry Bivol in 2022, Alvarez bounced back with a strong display against Jaime Munguia earlier this month – although the unanimous-decision win meant that Canelo had gone the distance for a fifth fight in a row, for the first time in his 65-fight career.
Still, Alvarez’s win over Munguia silenced doubters and reassured fans that his dominance at 168lbs will continue, especially now that David Benavidez and David Morrell have moved up to light-heavyweight. Canelo was expected to face either Edgar Berlanga or Terence Crawford on his next outing, until Cuba’s undefeated William Scull intervened.
As with many Cuban’s gone by, Scull adopts a traditional back-footed style that makes it tough to sell a fight between he and Canelo Alvarez – who is perceived to be many levels above ‘El Indomable’.
Yet, that style has proven effective for the 31-year-old, who has not been defeated in his 22 bouts to date and became the mandatory challenger for the IBF super-middleweight title when he outpointed Evgeny Shvedenko (15-0) in July 2022.
Almost two years later, it appears as though Scull has flown under the radar but that his patience has paid dividends, as purse bids have been called for him to disrupt Canelo’s plans and challenge the Mexican pound-for-pound sensation for the undisputed super-middleweight throne, Dan Rafael reports.
“BREAKING: Reps for IBF 168 mandatory William Scull have requested immediate purse bid (their right under the rules) for his due mandatory vs. undisputed champion Canelo Alvarez & IBF has notified its registered promoters the purse bid is scheduled for June 6 at 12 pm ET. #boxing”
Therefore, Canelo Alvarez is seemingly left with four options; squeeze in an extra outing and fight for three times during 2024, delay his next contest (expected to be against Crawford or Berlanga) before the end of the year, or vacate his IBF world title and proceed with his original plans as the unified title-holder rather than the undisputed champion.
Meanwhile, Scull has fought on three occasions since defeating Shvedenko, winning unanimous-decisions against each of Abel Nicholas Adriel (26-25-3), Cristian Fabian Rios (23-18-3) and Sean Hemphill (16-1), the last of which being on the Canelo-Munguia undercard.
Like much of the boxing community, newfound Saudi boxing catalyst Turki Al-Alshikh was far from pleased with news of Scull’s opportunity, as it stunts his vision of staging Canelo-Crawford in December.
Although, there is every chance that Canelo could fulfil his mandatory and take the fight with Scull in order to end his knockout drought with a quick turnaround from the Munguia fight – similar to how he dealt with Avni Yildirim’s mandatory in 2021, before proceeding on the undisputed path and defeating Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant later that year.
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