Canelo Alvarez and Callum Smith will have the privilege of fighting for the vacant WBC super-middleweight title next week when they square off on December 19th on DAZN at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Canelo recently petitioned the World Boxing Council to be considered a candidate to fight for the WBC 168-lb title after it was stripped from David Benavidez when he came in heavy for his title defense against Roamer Alexis Angulo last August.
Interestingly, the WBC immediately voted to allow Canelo to fight Yildirim for the vacant title, but the fight didn’t happen due to Alvarez’s problems with DAZN and Golden Boy.
It was announced earlier on Friday that the World Boxing Council has decided to make their vacant WBC 168-pound title available for Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) and Callum Smith (27-0, 19 KOs) to battle for on December 19th.
Unfortunately, the Canelo vs.Callum fight winner will need to fight #1 ranked WBC contender Avni ‘Mr. Roboto’ Yildirim within 90 days of their fight, which doesn’t leave a lot of time to recover.
Canelo and Smith likely won’t have a problem with this, though, as they want to unify the super middleweight division, and they would both likely make easy work of Yildirim (21-2, 12 KOs) without breaking a sweat.
Many boxing fans don’t understand how Yildirim is still ranked at #2 by the WBC after losing his last fight against Anthony Dirrell in February 2019, and he’s been out of the ring for 22 months.
The WBC has their way of doing things, and they don’t mind that Yildirim lost his last fight, obviously. But it does look bad that the Canelo vs. Smith winner will be fighting Yildirim rather than being free to take on one of the super middleweight champions in the weight class.
It’s kind of a waste. By the time Yildirim returns to the ring, he’ll have been out of the ring for over two years and coming off of a loss. If you’re Canelo or Callum, how do you promote a fight against Yildirim?
Yildirim is coming off a loss to past his best Anthony Dirrel, and be destroyed by Chris Eubank Jr in three rounds in 2017.
“The WBC is extremely proud to have such tremendous fight for the vacant WBC Super-Middleweight title,” said WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman.
“I would like to personally praise Avni Yildirim for his exemplary collaboration to make this a reality.”
If Canelo weren’t so eager to unify the super middleweight division, he would be better off telling the WBC that he has no interest in fighting for their title if it means that he needs to face Yildirim within 90 days.
It’s bad enough that the Canelo-Callum winner must fight the little known Yildirim in their next fight, but then to require them to make that fight within 90 days, it’s a joke.
If Callum beats Canelo, the WBC will be out of luck because he WON’T be fighting Yildirim next. He’ll be fighting Canelo a second time as part of their rematch clause.
“I am delighted that the winner of this fight will be crowned the WBC World champion at 168lbs,” said promoter Eddie Hearn.
“It is fitting for the [Canelo Alvarez vs. Callum Smith] winner to wear the green and gold belt on December 19 proudly.”