Canelo Vacates Super Middleweight Title?
According to Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn, Canelo Alvarez has vacated the WBA (Regular) super middleweight championship he has held since last year.
Alvarez claimed the championship in December 2018, knocking out Rocky Fielding in his Madison Square Garden debut. The Mexican superstar, who had defeated Gennadiy Golovkin, just three months earlier, did not stay at 168 pounds, however.
The year 2019 saw Alvarez defeated Daniel Jacobs in a WBA/WBC/IBF middleweight title unification bout in May before knocking out Sergey Kovalev to win the WBO light heavyweight title four weeks ago. With the win over Kovalev, Alvarez won a championship in a fourth weight class and held three weight division titles simultaneously, putting him in elite company.
Neither Alvarez nor his promoter, Golden Boy Promotions, has formally announced or confirmed the boxer’s decision to vacate the championship.
According to Hearn, the secondary super middleweight title is no longer Canelo’s and will be on the line in an upcoming planned bout between Lennox Allen and John Ryder. Allen is unbeaten at 22-0 and last fought in February, defeating Derrick Webster. Ryder, meanwhile, dropped a controversial decision last week against WBA (Super) super middleweight champ Callum Smith — a match plenty felt Ryder deserved the nod in.
It’s unknown what Alvarez’s next step will be. DAZN is pushing for him and GGG to have a trilogy bout, but the Mexican boxer has seemed reluctant or unwilling to do so. There’s also the chance Alvarez and Demetrius Andrade meet in a WBA/WBO middleweight title unification bout.
This story will be updated pending new developments
Original Story: FightNights