Politics
WBC look to change how mandatory world title challengers are picked after farce Canelo Alvarez win over Avni Yildirim
CANELO ALVAREZ’S convincing win over Avni Yildirim has forced the WBC to look into changing the process of selecting mandatory challengers.
Yildirim was pulled out by his trainer Joel Diaz before round four after the Turk was dropped and beaten into submission.
Canelo Alvarez beat Avni Yildirim in four rounds[/caption]
Canelo Alvarez was making a WBC mandatory defence[/caption]
But it has caused the WBC to now re-assess the structure of their rankings and challengers following Canelo’s comfortable and one-sided victory.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman told Boxing Social: “I’m sorry for Avni. The paper sometimes doesn’t reflect the actions, and it was very unfortunate.
“We had great expectations, and it’s a matter where we [WBC] need to look into the process that is not working in some roads.
“Definitely, there are things that we have to go back and look at what is happening and how things evolve.
“As I say, he [Canelo] was tremendously successful, he was in great shape, and that stage should have been for a much greater fight.”
After Canelo, 30, beat Callum Smith, also 30, he was given 90 days by the WBC to defend his belt against Yildirim.
But the 29-year-old, who was knocked out by Chris Eubank Jr in 2017, was coming off a loss to Anthony Dirrell, 36, and had not fought in two years.
Yildirim was instated as mandatory due to the controversial ending of his loss to Dirrell, where he lost on the cards following a cut from an accidental head clash.
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Despite calls for a rematch, David Benavidez went on to win the title from Dirrell, with Yildirim instead settling for a No1 contender spot.
Canelo later won the vacant belt after Benavidez, 24, was stripped having failed to make weight to face Roamer Alexis Angulo.
Four-weight champion Alvarez is now scheduled to fight WBO title holder Billy Joe Saunders, 31, in a May unification.
Sulaiman said: “Tremendous, he’s got a sight in unifying the whole division.
“That’s a process in how it begins, and we can see a very active year, and hopefully it’ll continue to be like that for Canelo and boxing.
“A tremendous match, it’s going to be a sensational fight.”
