Canelo Alvarez is hoping to bounce back from a first super-middleweight defeat upon his ring return later this year and it is quickly becoming clear which belt he will target.
Last September, the Mexican superstar lost out to Terence Crawford in a fight that will be spoken of for years to come. Canelo underwent elbow surgery after the contest, which is expected to keep him out of the ring until this autumn.
In recent weeks, it has become increasingly expected that Canelo will jump back into an immediate title challenge against Cameroon-born Christian Mbilli – who was elevated to full WBC super-middleweight world champion earlier in the year.
On Thursday, Mbilli’s promoter, Camille Estephan, watched on as another of his fighters, Osleys Iglesias, captured the IBF super-middleweight world title in style. During the post-fight interview, Estephan made it clear that Canelo ‘wants’ to win his WBC belt back, but vowed that Mbilli will overcome him.
“Canelo will hopefully fight Christian [Mbilli]. He seems to want the WBC title. We’re not gonna give it to him. We will beat him. We want to have all the titles in Quebec, all five, soon enough.
“We [Mbilli and Osleys Iglesias] are gonna get all the other titles, and then they’ll fight and we’ll have the superstar out of Quebec right here.”
Elsewhere, both the WBA and WBO super-middleweight titles are on the line next month, in separate bouts involving Jose Armando Resendiz and Jaime Munguia (May 2, for Resendiz’s WBA title), and then Hamzah Sheeraz and Alem Begic (May 23, for the vacant WBO).
