The IBF has come out of the woodwork once more to order Canelo Alvarez and William Scull to face each other and start negotiations, with purse bid proceedings planned if these talks do not pan out. As always, the IBF’s inability to actually communicate their mandates through their own platforms has led to Scull’s promoter, Agon Sports & Events, to announce the IBF’s mandate and potential upcoming fight.
With the WBC having openly already stated to refuse ordering Mexican undisputed 168 lbs champion Canelo Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KO’s) and mandatory challenger David Benavidez (28-0, 24 KO’s) to face each other, the IBF has now stepped in with their own mandate for Alvarez and Cuban contender William Scull (22-0, 9 KO’s) to start negotiations; with the negotiation period set for four weeks. With Benavidez currently set to fight Ukrainian former world champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk (20-1, 16 KO’s), the IBF seems to have finally found the opportune time to order a fight long overdue.
Once again, boxing can safely be considered to be one of the most inconsistent and corrupt sports merely by the IBF choosing to order this fight now, as William Scull had been the IBF mandatory challenger since 2022 after defeating Russian contender Evgeny Shvedenko (16-1-1, 7 KO’s) in a IBF final eliminator. Inexplicably, it took IBF almost two years since Scull’s victory on July 2nd to order this match; which is a rather disturbing implication given Alvarez has not faced a mandatory challenger since becoming undisputed in November of 2021.
While Alvarez did opt to face the now-retired John Ryder in 2023―who the media depicted as a WBO mandatory challenger, the WBO had never officially acknowledged Ryder as anything more than an interim champion and did not actually order Alvarez to face Ryder; meaning that Alvarez hasn’t faced a single mandatory challenger since he became undisputed roughly three years ago.
In that sense, William Scull will become the first legitimate mandatory challenger to face Canelo Alvarez―if the negotiations are successful―since Avni Yildirim was propped up to become Alvarez’ WBC mandatory challenger; eventually facing him in a losing effort in February of 2021―several months before Alvarez would become undisputed.
However, as far as mandatory challengers go, the Cuban contender appears far from the ideal candidate given the presence of both David Benavidez and David Morrell (10-0, 9 KO’s)―who will both be fighting at light-heavyweight this year for reasons that are still unclear but look decisively suspicious given they are considered the best contenders in the divisions. Conveniently, both fighters will also be fighting for placeholder world titles, with Morrell set to fight for the WBA ‘regular’ 175 lbs title while Benavidez will once again fight over an interim title against Gvozdyk.
As what can clearly be observed at this point, these same placeholder titles that Morrell and Benavidez possess and will vie over in the near future appear to be tools used to actually stifle their careers, with neither the WBA or WBC having any intention to order Canelo Alvarez to fight either fighter due to the perceived threat they pose to ending his undisputed reign.
The IBF’s decision to now order Alvarez vs. Scull should have occurred some time ago, but also further drives question on why William Scull was allowed to retain his mandatory challenger status for this long. This situation bears similarities to the 154 lbs division, where current IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev (22-0, 16 KO’s) similarly remained a mandatory challenger for years until the IBF finally decided to order the holder of the title, Jermell Charlo, to face Murtazaliev―a decision that Charlo would reject, leading to the relinquishment of his IBF title and giving Murtazaliev the means to obtain it this year.
Though Scull will finally have the opportunity to fight for a world title if his negotiations with Alvarez turn out to be successful, the Cuban 168-pounder will come into the match as an clear underdog; more so than any other opponent that Alvarez faced in the past couple of years as Scull’s resume is severely lacking. This is apparent by reviewing some of the last fighters he faced, with his penultimate fight in 2023 occurring against a fighter that had a record of 23-18, while the fighter before that had an almost-losing record of 26 wins and 25 losses.
