In some WBC news, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez is set to challenge Ilunga Makabu for the WBC cruiserweight title in an attempt to become a five-division titleholder.
According to President Mauricio Sulaiman:
“The WBC has approved unanimously Canelo to fight for the WBC cruiserweight championship of the world.”
“This is a surprise to me but I’m sure he will continue to make history.”
Canelo’s year has been a good one. “Dethroning three unbeaten super-middleweight champions (Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders, and Caleb Plant)” has made him a formidable fighter to defeat.
SkySports says that Saul Alvarez “is listed as the world’s pound-for-pound No 1 fighter on the back of that accomplishment”.
He won his first world title at super-welterweight, then became established at middleweight after two classic fights with Gennadiy Golovkin.
He boldly moved up to light-heavyweight (the highest he has been so far) and knocked out the fearsome Sergey Kovalev to claim his WBO title.
And now, he’s getting into the cruiserweight division — the final category before heavyweight, by going after the reigning WBC champion Ilunga Makabu.
The reigning WBC champion, Makabu, was knocked out by Tony Bellew at Goodison Park in 2016 as the Liverpool local became a world champion for the first time.
But Makabu has since impressively rebuilt by beating Dmitry Kudryashov and Alexei Papin on away turf in Russia.
Interesting! Saul’ Canelo’ Alvarez really has a big battle ahead of him. Trust me, he can beat Makabu but won’t get it on a platter of gold. It’s going to be a tough battle for both boxers.
Also, Richard Riakporhe, who will get into it with Olanrewaju Durodola on Saturday for the silver belt, has targetted Ilunga Makabu’s WBC gold. Now, let the games begin!!!
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