When someone becomes the undisputed champion, by necessity they sacrifice autonomy. Four mandatory challengers leave very little time for creative efforts; maybe the occasional stay in a higher or lower weight class, but anything else creates a jam.
Having fulfilled his immediate IBF obligation by beating Caleb Plant for the belt and with the WBA showing no signs of making him fight “world” champion David Morrell, Canelo Alvarez entered 2022 with only one mandate overdue: Zach Parker, that was close to two. years since he stopped Rohan Murdock in a supposed WBO final eliminator. Rather than face him, Canelo went up to 175 to challenge Dmitry Bivol and the WBO set up an interim title fight between Parker and Demetrius Andrade. It’s not ideal in terms of keeping the division moving, but it’s fair enough.
Fast forward to now. When Canelo steps back into the ring, it will have been more than a year since he, the undisputed champion, fought a ranked super middleweight. There is a new purse offer for Parker and Andrade after the first fight collapsed and it is unclear if Morrell will ever fight Aidos Yerbossynuly, who won a WBA final eliminator in 2021. IBF mandatory William Scull only he secured his place in July, leaving only one. Canelo can fight next if the powers that be want to keep pretending the rules apply to him: interim WBC champion David Benavidez.
WBC rules require that a champion face at least one mandatory challenger per year, which is why Canelo had to make a pit stop to crush Avni Yildirim during his famous 2021 campaign. Canelo intends to return in May at the earliest, which means two years will have passed without a mandatory fight. A second fight with Bivol cannot replace this obligation if there is to be any semblance of legitimacy in Canelo’s state.
I’m not holding my breath. The WBC rules also state that they can change their rules as they see fit, which is why Gary Russell Jr. had a two-year stint in which he single-handedly fought a pre-Galahad Kiko Martinez.
We’ve seen, in a broken way, how this is supposed to work with the ongoing Josh Taylor saga. Outside of the WBA rushing in, it’s been simple: the sanctioning bodies ordered mandatory defenses, he turned them down, they stripped him. Canelo got his victory lap, and now it’s time to do his job.
To be clear, I’m not saying I have to fight Benavidez because it’s an interesting matchup. Benavidez could have had this fight years ago if he had kept his head on straight, and Canelo had no obligation to give him a title shot. Now, however, “The Red Flag” is the only option.
And if the notorious pissant Mauricio Sulaiman doesn’t want to play by his own rules, you can be sure the IBF has no scruples. It’s fight Benavidez or lose his undisputed status anyway when he gets stripped for not fighting Scull.
