WBC President: Canelo Alvarez Is Still Middleweight Champion After Rocky Fielding Fight
With Canelo Alvarez moving up in weight to challenge for the WBA’s secondary world title at 168 pound titles, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman commented on the status of Alvarez’s WBC title at 160 pounds.
Sulaiman spoke with ESPN Deportes to discuss what is to become of Alvarez’s WBC middleweight titles after it was announced that Alvarez would challenge for Rocky Fielding’s WBA “regular” super middleweight titles. Alvarez was allowed a voluntary title defense after defeating Gennady Golovkin on September 15 to win the WBC and WBA 160-pound titles, but Sulaiman stated that Alvarez would be allowed to keep his title even though he is not defending the titles against Fielding.
“The rules state that a champion is allowed to challenge for other titles in other weight classes and so Canelo will represent the WBC and when he’s done, he’ll choose whether to go back [to middleweight] or stay [at super middleweight],” Sulaiman said.
The aforementioned ruling that Sulaiman referenced did allow another WBC world champion to challenge for another world title from a non-WBC governing body at another weight class. Lightweight champion Mikey Garcia moved up in weight to challenge for the IBF junior welterweight title. Garcia won the title, but then moved back down to lightweight to unify the WBC and IBF titles against Robert Easter Jr.
The WBC has also ordered interim middleweight champion Jermall Charlo to face off against Golovkin in a final eliminator, but there’s no news on if the fight is actually happening.
The fight between Alvarez and Fielding will headline a boxing card at Madison Square Garden on December 15. U.S. broadcast plans has yet to be announced.
