WBC Delays Purse Bid For Proposed Canelo-Yildirim Fight

The circus like situation around four division World Champion, Canelo Alvarez, continues to have news in courtrooms and from boxing organizations. And, the WBC is the latest one to make news, but this time about a delay for they propose is Canelo’s potential next fight.

The World Boxing Council made official late Sunday night that their and Alvarez’s desire to fight Turkish super middleweight, Avni Yildirim, will be delayed another week to October 6th:

We have news about Canelo vs Yildirim ?https://t.co/CruvMlGACp

— World Boxing Council (@WBCBoxing) September 21, 2020

“The WBC is officially confirming the postponement of the purse offer ceremony for the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs Avni Yildirim fight for the vacant WBC Super Middleweight championship. The new date has been set for Tuesday October 6 and will be conducted on an open video conference.

The WBC has received registration to participate in this process by TUFF Promotions / TUFF Boxing through Mr. Simon Whittle.

All parties are hereby notified of the new date,” the statement read.

Alvarez, (53-1-2), who has not been in the ring since last November, when he defeated Sergey Kovalev by TKO for the WBO Light Heavyweight Championship but then later relinquished that belt, is still embroiled in a humongous dispute with his promoter Golden Boy Promotions and that DAZN streaming service about when where and against whom his next fight will be?

So much so, that Alvarez attempted to sue Golden Boy and its owner, Hall of Famer Oscar De La Hoya, as well as dazn in California Federal Court two weeks ago. However the judge assigned to the case quickly dismissed it on improper filing technicalities and gave Alvarez’s attorneys until the end of this week to refile correctly.

As we previously wrote, De La Hoya wants to have any disputes settled via arbitration and try to get Alvarez back in the ring this fall.

Currently, DAZN appears unwilling to relent on reducing Alvarez’s massive $35 million or so guaranteed fight money drastically for the lack of what they consider a “premium opponent.” They reportedly were negotiating with Unified 168 lb. champ Callum Smith of England, but that fight was never finalized.

Still, Canelo who is the WBC “franchise middleweight champion” is looking for a fight and the organization has deemed Yildirim 21-2 and former WBC “International” 168 lb. title holder, as a suitable opponent for him. They could also hold the fight at 168 lb. for the now vacant WBC World title after stripping David Benavidez last month for failing to make weight in his first title defense.

And, they have put this fight up for their purse bid process, if anyone wants to promote it.

They indicated that one bidder, TUFF Boxing Promotions is interested. However, it’s not clear on whether they could substantially bid anything for the proposed Canelo-Yldirim fight?

Further and most importantly for the bid process, there is no doubt that De La Hoya and DAZN would fight to block Canelo being allowed to box for anyone besides them and without their collective approval. That’s because of the massive 11-fight $365 million-dollar contract Alvarez signed with Golden Boy and DAZN back in 2018.

So, the legal “out of the ring wrangling” continues and meanwhile, the clock continues to also tick on whether Alvarez will fight at all in 2020?

No one is disputing that the proposed Yildirim fight is largely a joke, as he hasn’t fought since a February 2019 loss to Anthony Dirrell, but also there is no dispute that wasting an entire year of the prime of Alvarez’s career due to the out of ring squabbling over his contract, opponents and money makes boxing as a sport lose out.

Now, we wait for the next move from Canelo, as well as De La Hoya / Golden Boy and the streaming service, as to when we will see him fight again?