By Mauricio Sulaimán
President of the WBC – Son of José Sulaimán
The most important boxer of the last decade, Mexican Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez, has revealed the details of his immediate future in boxing. He signed with Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) to fight his next three bouts in what is sure to be a multi-million-dollar deal.
His first fight has already been announced, which will take place on September 30 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, and will be one of the greats against Jermell Charlo, undisputed super welterweight champion, who will face Canelo, who in turn, is the undisputed champ of super middleweights.
This is something that has never happened in the history of modern boxing, champion vs. champion, each with their four belts: WBC-WBO-IBF-WBA.
This is the new era of Canelo. His fight against Charlo will be one of those confrontations which will remain to be remembered due to its characteristics. Whenever a Mexican fights an American, a tremendous battle is guaranteed.
For Saúl himself, his victories against Austin Trout, Daniel Jacobs, and James Kirkland were of great expectation, great fights and with important results in the ratings and business in general for the promoter and the boxers.
Who is Jermell? He is the younger twin of the Charlos, his brother was born a minute earlier and is called Jermall, and he is the current WBC middleweight world champion.
Jermell won his first championship, the WBC Continental Americas super welterweight, 10 years ago. He also won the IBF in 2013 and won the WBC super welterweight world championship in 2016. This means that he has 10 years of experience in high-level title fights. His record is 35 wins, one loss and one draw. He curiously avenged his loss against Tony Harrison and his draw against Brian Castaño, both of whom he defeated by blunt knockouts.
He is a strong fighter, with great boxing and punching power. The only rival in common with Canelo is Austin Trout, and both defeated him by decision.
There are many options for Saúl Álvarez after his signing with PBC. In addition to Jermell, there is his brother Jermall Charlo, also the official challenger of the division, David Benavidez. In short, an interesting list of great fights in the future of the Mexican star.
What a great time for boxing! The month of July will be full of exciting combats. Likewise, August, September and the rest of the year, both in the male and female branches.
The Japanese idol, Naoya Inoue, will try to win his fourth world championship by facing the WBC-WBO champion, Stephen Fulton on July 25 in Japan, and a few days later, the big welterweight fight for all four belts will take place in Las Vegas, USA, between Errol Spence Jr. and Terence Crawford, a fight that is compared to Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Tommy Hearns.
After the great Muay Thai event last week in Venice, I had the great opportunity to visit Italy. I went to Milan, Sardinia, and Rome, and I realized something that made me reflect on what is so simple, but that I had never appreciated. There are two things that cause great happiness and when they are present, it changes the mood and life: ice cream and music.
Every city in Italy has multiple ice cream places. In all the ones I entered, although there were very long queues, there is an atmosphere of happiness, excitement, and expectation. Everyone is smiling, and even more so when they start to savor their ice cream.
The music is in the squares, in the restaurants, in the subway, and in the gondolas. Where there is music there is happiness, tranquility, and harmony.
Salvatore Cherchi’s attention has been incredible. A dear friend of my dad, one of the greatest promoters in history with more than 50 years in boxing, and now his sons, Christian and Allesandro Cherchi, continue the legacy of their promoter, OPI 2000.
DID YOU KNOW…?
Boxing history has given a limited number of brothers who have managed to become world champions. Very few have been monarchs simultaneously.
Among them are some boxing greats: Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, Gabriel and Rafael Ruelas, Saúl and Rigoberto Álvarez, Erik and Diego Morales, Juan Manuel and Rafael Márquez.
There is only one case where three brothers have been world champions: Koki, Daiki, and Tomoki Kameda. And no simultaneous world champion twins, only Jermall and Jermell Charlo.
Today’s anecdote
We were in Jeju, South Korea, during the Annual Convention and as is the tradition, the night before the opening, there is a WBC Board of Governors dinner. On that occasion it was in a local restaurant, with rectangular tables in an oblong place devoid of interest.
My dad came to where Salvatore Cherchi was and told him: “My dear Salvatore, I need to ask you a great favor, it’s something urgent.”
Cherchi immediately stood up and agreed to help with whatever it was.
“Salvatore, please sing ‘O sole mio.’ Look, this dinner is a failure, and I’m sorry that everyone comes from all over the world. Please.”
As soon as the beautiful song finished, they were all standing ready to continue with songs from Japan, South Africa, and “New York, New York” by Sinatra, “Guantanamera,” and even Don José sang “Cielito Lindo.” So, it turned out to be one of the most notable dinners that everyone carries, retains. and recalls in their heart and soul.
I welcome your feedback at [email protected].
Give me sanctioning fees.Its MS bottom line.
I will watch Canelo/Charlo, but I am a HUGE supporter of CANELO/BENAVIDEZ AT 168.
So your countryman is avoiding the biggest challenge and fight out there and you sing his praises? Mauricio, we already know his resume! You don’t have to remind us! And you out of all people should see how ridiculous this is with Canelo going after a guy 2 weight classes below him and not going after more credible challenges in his own weight class?! This has all the writing of Canelo vs Khan! This is totally embarrassing! Especially on Mexican independence!!!!
I can’t even.
What a load of manufactured crap!!! Your organisation robs mandatories of their chance to be champions while your promotion mates rake in the dollars. And are we sure it’s Jermell that Canello is up against? Something fishy going on here!!
What a worthless fight! Canelo is afraid of taking another whooping by Bivol and running from Benavidez.
After looking pedestrian against Ryder he’s trying to pass this off as anything but the mismatch that we know it is.
And as far as Charlo, he’s avoiding Tszyu like the plague, and instead chasing a higher payday because he knew he was going to lose either way.
SMH. just pathetic all the way around.
Seriously Guys,,, if you have such a low concept about Canelo and his boxing history and about the different sanctioning bodies,,, DON’T WATCH, DON’T FOLLOW. you all sound like women… no matter what men do its never enough.
Cheezy ol boy, I think Canelo is a great fighter, takes on the bigger fellow regardless of contractual conditions,unified champ at 168lb and a champ at 160lb(or was). He fights,his management team take care of business. My beef is the word ” MANDATORY” now seems to be rendered meaninglessness in professional boxing.
Really? What this clown and his organization does is OK? Everybody on here loves the sport and is looking for ways to make it better.
There has been couple of Canelo’s fights that, as a boxing fan I rejected, such as Rocky Fieldinding, Avni Yildirim, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Josesito Lopez and maybe another one wasAmir Khan, because they had written all over the word “mismatch”, but this time against Charlo, even though he is a 154 champion, that doesn’t mean he is the smaller man (he is 6’1″) and who knows his weight right now, in other words, given the qualities of Charlo as a boxer this fight is not a mismatch, even though Canleo might be a 10-1 favorite. Now. senseless haters are crying why is not Benavidez instead, trying to portray Canelo as he is ducking him, no, the three fights deal with PBC might be the reason for this fight, but always in the boxing business, the hardest fight is left at the end and I assume sandwiched in between could be Morrell, Andrade or Spence, just one thing is very clear, if Canelo were ducking, avoiding Benavidez, he would have never signed this deal because the before mentioned fighters are with PBC, furthermore potential candidates to fight him
Brothers who were champions left out Orlando and Gaby Canizales from Laredo, TX. Also, Diego Morales did not become a world champion.
He also said “And no simultaneous world champion twins, only Jermall and Jermell Charlo.”
What about Khaosai & Khaokor Galaxy? They were Twins who held belts simultaneously.
Also, though not twins, Donald and Bruce Curry had titles at the same time as well…
Thank you. No matter what we feel of this blog he does, the one thing which really winds me up is historical inaccuracies….. He really shouldn’t post “facts” when he hasn’t checked them.
Diego Morales had a brief reign as WBO Super-Flyweight champ in the late 90’s.
Mauricio said: “His fight against Charlo will be one of those confrontations which will remain to be remembered due to its characteristics. Whenever a Mexican fights an American, a tremendous battle is guaranteed.”
Whenever a Mexican fights “an American”. This seems like too general a statement to make. Feels like there’s a word or two missing from that sentence that may have narrowed things down to what he was really talking about.
Anyway, he goes on to say: “For Saúl himself, his victories against Austin Trout, Daniel Jacobs, and James Kirkland were of great expectation, great fights and with important results in the ratings and business in general for the promoter and the boxers.”
Couldn’t help but notice that there was no mention of Canelo’s most recent opponent, Caleb Plant. When he mentions this fight’s “characteristics”, it’s hard to tell if he’s talking about the four belt vs. four belt thing, or the fact that it’s a Mexican-Black American match-up, which doesn’t happen all that often with Canelo these days.
I meant, no mention of Canelo’s most recent AMERICAN opponent, Caleb Plant.
This guy does sound bias at all. Runs his organization as a promotion company, thus not giving anyone facing Canelo a fair chance. Oh yea they have WBC judges too
154 or 168??
Canelo signed a 3 fight deal with the PBC to put all these dumb asses to rest. Time to clean house.
This comment section is full of “men” who waste a lot of time talking about the inaccuracies being told of actual men who stepped in the ring. You fellas sound like a bunch of weirdos who should go do something with their time, maybe skip rope or do a pushup. What a failed society the whole world has become. Too worried about what other people write but waste your time belittling the man who wrote it. Ps….he doesn’t care what you think. He’s too busy counting his cash.
This is just typical Sulaimafian spins and b.s. – He is just trying to keep Canelo in “winning fights ” so he keeps getting the high sanctioning fees. They are avoiding Benavides and Morel , so that it doesn’t mess up the “bu$iness ” . Mauricio and Canelo have no shame or integrity and are an embarrassment to Mexico. I cant wait until they out of boxing.
I don’t understand it
As soon as cameras were in front of Charlos they start talking shiit daring canelo telling him they move up to fight him now when the fight is signed up people don’t want it
Any decent boxing fans knows boxing business is corrupt to the core. Now what people seem to forget is how various HOF made their careers out of fighting smaller men, Gatti for one, another one is Monzon look at his biggest wins, the older version of Benvenutti, Mantequilla Napoles and Emile Griffith both natural Welters. Yet nobody seems to question his legacy as one of the best middle weights of history.
Facing a super welter? Why not a featherweight? This really is a new era.
Keep on writting nonsense!
Writing
Traveling the world with blood money taken from fighters!
Should be a decent fight to watch! Screw benavides, he’s a heavyweight on fight night so, I don’t blame canelo for taking that fight! Canelo just dont do any good with tall heavier fighters! Benavidez vs bivol, benavidez vs zurdo ramirez, benavidez vs munguia, benavidez vs morell just to name a few!
Why was this clown given a platform for his hyperbole? I stopped reading when he said that utter garbage about mexican vs american is guaranteed fireworks. GTFOH!!!!
W.B.C. = W e. Been . Collecting. *
* Teddy atlas line