By Dan Ambrose: The May 6 fight between Mexican stars Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. will be fighting for a WBC commemorative belt when they face each other in their catch-weight fight at 164 ½ pounds at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight was originally supposed to be just a business type of fight without a title on the line, but the World Boxing Council has chosen to create their own WBC belt for the fight with a commemorative strap called the “Don Adolfo López Mateos,” according to Fight News.
Mateos was one of Mexico’s presidents many years ago in the late 50s to 1964. It’s unknown if the WBC’s specially created title will be used in future fights as well moving forward.
Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. don’t really need a title on the line for their fight. This is a business fight.
It doesn’t make sense for a title to be on the line, and some would say it might cheapen the fight. Chavez Jr. is not a major player in the super middleweight division. He used to be a good fighter at 160 many years ago, but he’s done nothing since moving up to 168 in 2013. In Canelo’s case, he’s never fought at super middleweight before. He’s never even fought at the full weight for the 160lb division even though he was briefly the WBC middleweight champion from 2015-2016 before vacating the title after he was ordered to fight Gennady “GGG” Golovkin.
Canelo doesn’t rate to be fighting for a title at super middleweight, because he’s never fought in that division before. Besides that, the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight is a catch-weight contest at 164 ½ pounds. How can the WBC have one of their specially created titles on the line for a catch-weight fight rather than for a fight at the full weight for the 168lb division?
One question you have to ask is why the WBC didn’t put up their WBC Diamond strap for the fight. That’s one of their recently created straps that they use for important fights. Canelo-Chavez Jr. is an important fight for some boxing fans. It might be an important sporting fight, but there’s a segment of the U.S population that has an interest in this match. The WBC’s Diamond strap would be a fitting one. The WBC has a number of different title belts they hand out. Here are some of them:
WBC championship title
WBC Diamond title: A title that is an honorary title for historic fights.
WBC Silver title