Canelo Alvarez Vacating IBF Title, Avoiding Mandatory Scull

Undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez will be vacating his IBF title after the sanctioning body ordered him to defend against their mandatory William Scull.

The IBF might regret having chosen obscure Scull as the mandatory for Canelo, as their belt is reportedly being vacated by the Mexican star, which leaves a less popular fighter who ultimately ends up with it.

Clearly, Canelo would vacate his IBF title as soon as news broke that the sanctioning body was ordering him to fight Scull (22-0, 9 KOs), whose career win on his eight-year resume is a fighter named Sean Hemphill. It was a bad move on the IBF’s part to put Canelo in a position to defend against Scull.

Boxingscene reports that Canelo (60-2-2, 39 KOs) is vacating his IBF title, leaving him with the WBA, WBC & WBO 168-lb straps still in his possession. That’s more than enough titles.

There’s no way on earth that Canelo could fight Scull because it would not sell on PPV. Canelo would have to take an enormous paycut from what he’s been making to defend against Scull, and obviously, he’s not going to want to do that.

While it’s great for fighters to strive to become undisputed champions, they can’t hold onto the belts once they get them unless they’re on board with fighting the mediocre mandatory challengers that the sanctioning bodies come up with.

For example, Scull has been fighting lesser opposition his entire pro career, and he clearly does not rate as a mandatory challenger in many fans’ eyes. When your best career win is against a no-name guy, it doesn’t make sense to be mandatory for any champions, least of all a superstar like Canelo Alvarez.

Now that Canelo is vacating his IBF title, he might choose to face his WBA mandatory Edgar Berlanga next. He’s the same type of no-name as Skull and has fought equally weak opponents his entire career.

But Berlanga is at least popular in small sections of New York, and he’s a good self-promoter, talking himself up despite never having fought anyone good during his entire career. Many fans view Berlanga as a classic hype job, a manufactured fighter with a fluff record.