Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez was scheduled to take part in a purse bid today, June 18, to determine his next fight.
The undisputed super-middleweight champion is coming off a dominant victory over Jaime Munguia back in May, adding a 61st win to the professional campaign that kicked off all the way back in 2005.
Canelo retained his WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF belts, making it his fourth undisputed defence after beating Gennady Golovkin in the pair’s trilogy, John Ryder and Jermell Charlo.
The queue of number one challengers is now as follows, WBO’s Diego Pacheco, WBA’s Edgar Berlanga, IBF’s William Scull and WBC’s David Benavidez – undoubtedly the fight fans want to see most.
It was the IBF who were next in the rotation, though, and a purse bid for the Scull fight was requested just nine days into the negotiation period after the Cuban’s team said negotiations had failed. It was then delayed twice and was finally set to happen today, but a deal has reportedly been reached at the final minute.
Scull’s promotional team, AGON Sports, released the news along with a statement from Team Manager Horst-Peter Strickrodt.
“We are happy that we were able to reach an agreement with TGB. We have agreed to keep the details confidential and cannot disclose anything further at this time. However, the Canelo team will release relevant information first at the appropriate time.”
Scull is a career-long super-middleweight with a record of 22 wins, nine knockouts and zero losses. He is coming off a unanimous decision win over Sean Hemphill.
Canelo tends to fight in May and September each year. More news is expected soon, but it looks like the Mexican is keen to hold on to all four belts despite reports to the contrary.
Update: Scull’s team has since said that the deal may be a step aside arrangement, meaning he may not be next in line.
