By Dan Ambrose: The WBC will be extending the purse bid for the Canelo Alvarez vs. Avni Yildirim fight for another 15 days for their vacant super middleweight title. The World Boxing Council gives Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs) a little more time due to his litigation.
It looks like this is the last time the WBC will push back the Canelo-Yildirim. If the fight still isn’t ready to be made in the next 15 days, then it’s almost a given that they’ll replace the popular Golden Boy star Alvarez with another opponent.
Callum Smith a good option for Yildirim
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has been pushing hard for his fighter Callum Smith to be the one that faces ‘Mr. Robot’ Yildirim for the vacant WBC 160-pound title, so there’s still a possibility that he could get picked.
All the complaining from Hearn could pay off with Callum getting the fight. That would put the hard-punching 6’3″ Callum in an excellent position to become a two-belt holder at 168, as Yildrim is a flawed fighter, as we saw in his losses to Anthony Dirrell and Chris Eubank Jr.
WBC statement on Canelo vs. Yildirim purse bid delay
“Understanding the current situation of WBC Franchise champion, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, The WBC in good faith extends 15 days and for a final time the purse offer ceremony for the Alvarez vs Yildirim fight, for the vacant WBC Super Middleweight title.
The WBC will inquire the definite status in this period and in order to make a final determination and ruling on the division.”
Having Canelo hold down the WBC 168lb title would have the ‘Face of Boxing’ in possession of the sanctioning bodies’ title. It’s easy to understand why that would be a good thing for the WBC. Further, the sanctioning money that Canelo would bring in wouldn’t hurt as well.
WBC ready to move on
It would seem obvious that it’s a lost cause for the WBC to be delaying further another purse bid because Canelo isn’t likely to take the fight with Yildirim.
There would be problems for Canelo potentially in getting DAZN or another network to show the fight. DAZN wants quality fights on the network platform, and Canelo vs. Yildirim falls well short of that.
The way that Eubank Jr smashed Yildirim in three rounds in 2017, it wouldn’t be a great fight for DAZN to show to the boxing fans.
It would be another Canelo vs. Rocky Fielding type of contest, but what would make it even worse is that fans wouldn’t be excited to see it. They wouldn’t want to subscribe to DAZN to watch it because it wouldn’t be must-see programming.
For Canelo to have shown interest in fighting Yildirim for the WBC super-middleweight title, it suggests that he was looking for easy fights.
The WBC 168-pound title recently fell vacant after former champion David Benavidez failed to make weight for his title defense against Roamer Alexis Angulo.
Benavidez couldn’t take off the last bit of weight because he as in the bubble and unable to shed the last few pounds. However, Benavidez is still ranked #1 with the WBC, could mean that they might have hi fight for the vacant title/