{"id":467131,"date":"2026-02-11T02:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/467131\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T02:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:55:07","slug":"canelo-named-as-potential-opponent-for-new-world-champions-first-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/467131\/","title":{"rendered":"Canelo named as potential opponent for new world champion’s first defence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canelo Alvarez<\/a> is seemingly inching closer towards securing an immediate world title shot following his points defeat to Terence Crawford last year.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old lost his undisputed super-middleweight crown in September, with Crawford claiming a unanimous decision victory<\/a> after moving up two weight classes.<\/p>\n

But while \u2018Bud\u2019 announced his retirement several months later, Canelo has opted to remain in the sport for a little while longer.<\/p>\n

It was announced by Turki Alalshikh last month, in fact, that the Mexican will headline a card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this September.<\/p>\n

Along with that, Alalshikh added that Canelo is set to face one of the champions at 168lbs, presenting him with an opportunity to reclaim one of his titles.<\/p>\n

As it stands, the only current male super-middleweight world champions are Christian Mbilli and Jose Armando Resendiz, with the WBO and IBF titles remaining vacant following Crawford\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n

And, of the two, WBC champion Mbilli is perhaps the obvious candidate for a Canelo clash, given his fan-friendly style and Alvarez\u2019s traditionally productive relationship with the WBC.<\/p>\n

The unbeaten Frenchman comes off a 10-round draw with Lester Martinez, featuring on the undercard of Canelo-Crawford, which saw Mbilli retain his WBC \u2018interim\u2019 strap.<\/p>\n

Since then, the sanctioning body has elevated him from \u2018interim\u2019 to full world champion<\/a>, with the 30-year-old now searching for a worthy challenger to defend his title against.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Sky Sports<\/a>, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman named Alvarez, among others, as a possible option.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to address the situation in the following weeks to see what is coming up for Mbilli and the division.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, Canelo, [Jaime] Munguia, Lester Martinez, Luka Plantic \u2013 there are so many fighters who can make great fights for the champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should he secure a fight with Mbilli, then this would be Canelo\u2019s first outing since his defeat to Crawford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canelo Alvarez is seemingly inching closer towards securing an immediate world title shot following his points defeat to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-467131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}