Canelo Álvarez to potentially square off against undefeated puncher in September.
Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez is undoubtedly one of the best Mexican fighters of all time, one of the best boxers of our generation, and one of the biggest draws in the entire sport.
He became a four-division world champion from super-welterweight to light-heavyweight, reigning as the undisputed super-middleweight champion for over three years.
He scored 23 victories in world title fights and was universally recognised as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world by every organisation.
But as the great Sir. Isaac Newton is so famously quoted as saying, “What goes up must come down.”
The thing about reaching such dramatic heights is that if you fall, it is a long way down, and top-level athletes understand this more than most.
People have noticed a decline in Canelo since his 2022 loss to Dmitry Bivol. It is since then that Canelo has scored decision victories over a 40-year-old Gennady Golovkin, John Ryder, Jermell Charlo, Jaime Munguía, Edgar Berlanga, and William Scull.
Canelo was criticised for not producing a stoppage over any of these opponents, and this criticism became even louder when not long after beating them, Ryder was stopped by Munguía, Munguía was knocked out by Bruno Surace, Berlanga was stopped by Hamzah Sheeraz, and Scull was knocked out by Jacob Bank.
Then Canelo was defeated by Terence Crawford, and the claims that the Mexican was simply not what he once was only ramped up. His undisputed 168-pound crown was shattered and went in different directions upon Crawford’s retirement.
One of these shattered pieces was the WBC belt, and it went in the direction of Christian Mbilli, the undefeated Cameroonian who last fought on the undercard of Canelo’s latest defeat in a rip-roaring contest against Lester Martínez.
Mbilli has long been considered someone to avoid in the super-middleweight division. However, now that he has the WBC title, avoiding him is so much harder.
And rumours have been swirling that upon Canelo’s expected return in September, Mbilli may be the man he will be facing.
In an interview with Boxing News, Marc Ramsay (Mbilli’s trainer) has stated that the Canelo fight or Martínez rematch may be next.
“We are waiting on the WBC to see exactly what they want us to do, whether we have to face the interim champion [Lester Martínez] or not, or if we have a proposal to fight Canelo”, said Ramsay.
If it is the Mbilli fight next for Canelo, one wonders whether or not the future Hall-of-Famer will be able to enhance his legacy with a championship win over a feared puncher.
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