By Sean Jones: In a sadly predictable move, the WBC’s Board of Governors have voted by a landslide 36-1 resolution to order Canelo Alvarez to be the opponent that faces WBC 168-pound mandatory Avni Yildirim to fight for the vacant WBA super-middleweight title.
Yildirim is another Rocky Fielding level mismatch for Canelo to win another easy title at 168. In 2018, Canelo captured the WBA’ regular’ super-middleweight title in beating Fielding, who was viewed as a paper champion by a lot of fans.
In other words, Fielding was seen as the weakest, most vulnerable of the champions in the division. Canelo’s decision to choose Fielding led to a storm of criticism from people.
Will DAZN approve Yildirim as Canelo’s opponent?
The World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman reported the news of the WBC’s vote on Tuesday, picking the superstar Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs) to fight #1 WBC ‘Mr. Robot’ Yildirim (21-2, 21 KOs) for the vacant WBC title that was recently stripped from champion David Benavidez last Friday.
It remains to be seen whether DAZN will approve the 28-year-old Yildirim as an opponent for Canelo. They’re paying the Golden Boy Promotions star Alvarez many million per fights to bring in new subscribers, and the only way he can do that is to face opposition that U.S boxing fans want to see.
DAZN won’t get much value in allowing Canelo to face Yildirim because there’s zero demand by American boxing fans for this fight, which is a total mismatch on paper.
🚨 BREAKING 🚨
.@Canelo Alvarez 🆚 Avni Yildirim
For the WBC vacant SuperMiddleweight championship 🔰🥊 pic.twitter.com/SshDDo4x8t
— World Boxing Council (@WBCBoxing) August 18, 2020
Yildirim was blown out in three rounds by Chris Eubank Jr in 2017, and that was by far the best opponent he’s faced as a pro. The casual fans in the States have no idea who Yildirim is, and the hardcore fans likely aren’t impressed with what they’ve seen from him.
Canelo was supposed to be trying to set-up a fight against WBA Super World super middleweight champion Callum Smith (27-0, 19 KOs) for September 12th, but the two have been unable to negotiate a fight.
Yildirim, who comes from Turkey, isn’t popular in the United States, and he lost his last fight against past his prime 35-year-old Anthony Dirrell’s previous year in February.
Mr. Robot coming off a loss to Dirrell
Usually, that loss would have resulted in Yildirim being pushed far down in the WBC’s rankings, but he appealed his loss to the sanctioning body. Yildirim’s complaint was based on Dirrell suffering a cut that led to the fight being halted in the 10th.
It then went to the scorecards, and Dirrell was given a 10th round technical decision victory. Yildirim had been rallying from the seventh round after Dirrell was cut, and he might have been able to pull out the win if the contest had gone the full 12 rounds.
Benavidez (23-0, 20 KOs) failed to make weight in coming in almost three pounds over the 168lb limit at 170.75 lbs for what was supposed to be a defense of his WBC belt against #15 Roamer Aleix Angulo.
Shortly after Benavidez was stripped of his WBC title, the following fighters put in a request with the World Boxing Council to be considered as the opponent for Yildirim to fight for the vacant WBA super-middleweight title:
- Canelo Alvarez
- David Benavidez
- Callum Smith
- Azizbek Abdugofurov
The 36 WBC governors that voted to pick Canelo as the opponent for Yildirim to fight should consider having another vote, as the fans don’t want to see this mismatch.
People want to see Canelo fight quality guys, as he’s been cherry-picking opposition lately in choosing washed up Sergey Kovalev, Daniel Jacobs, and Rocky Fielding.
“The WBC Board of Governors has voted 36-1 to order Alvarez, the multi-division world champion who holds The WBC Franchise designation to fight against The WBC’s mandatory contender of the division, Avni Yildirim,” in a Tweet from the WBC on Tuesday on the information on Canelo getting picked.
Why does Canelo want the WBC 168lb title?
The WBC already made Canelo their Franchise champion in 2019, a move which helped the Mexican star arguably dodge mandatory challenger Jermall Charl. With the Franchise tag, Canelo can fight for titles against whoever he wants, provided that the WBC’s board of Governors approve.
What’s difficult to understand is what Canelo sees in Yildirim for him to want to face him for the vacant WBC 168lb title. When former WBC champ David Benavidez held the 168-pound title, Canelo wasn’t pushing the WBC to become his mandatory challenger to fight for his belt.
Canelo could have made that move, but he didn’t. He waited until Benavidez was stripped of his WBC title before requesting that the WBC allow him to fight Yildirim for the belt.
This move looks like Canelo is going after another easy mark to win another title against the weakest fighter. Yildirim hasn’t fought in a year and a half since losing to Anthony Dirrell, and he’s a poor option for Alvarez to be challenging.