Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez is preparing for a big year in the sport of boxing, with his usual May and September dates now taking shape.
The 34-year-old is currently unified super-middleweight world champion and, despite previously dismissing the fight, has recently been in talks with fellow four-division titlist Terence Crawford for a fight this September. The match-up will see Crawford jump up two weight classes from his last outing.
Canelo intends to keep his usual fight date around Cinco De Mayo in May before facing ‘Bud’ on the weekend of Mexican Independence Day later in the year.
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Speaking to Boxing Azteca, his longtime trainer and manager Eddy Reynoso named William Scull (23-0, 9 KOs) and Christian Mbilli (28-0, 23 KOs) as the two top options for May.
“Well, there are several, there is William Scull, there is the other classified by the WBO, Mbilli, I think he lives in Canada. They are the ones that are more or less there right now, but there is nothing concrete. You can also hear about Crawford for September, but we still don’t really have anything sure until about 15 days or so.”
Scull is the current IBF World Champion in the super-middleweight ranks having picked up the belt when Canelo was stripped due to not facing him as mandatory challenger. A win over the Cuban fighting out of Germany would give him the chance to become undisputed again, adding more to the Crawford mega-fight.
Cameroonian-French Mbilli is currently ranked number one with the WBC and WBA and two with the WBO. He presents a more dangerous option than the tricky Scull with 23 knockouts from 28 wins.
As for Crawford, he recently confirmed that he will not be taking a fight before September when he is expected to go in with the elite Mexican.
