Mauricio Sulaiman grants Eddy Reynoso’s wish to Canelo to face the cruiser class champion Ilunga Makabu

By: Hans Themistode

Canelo Alvarez has openly admitted that he is motivated by challenges. After defeating former IBF 168-pound champion Caleb Plant and becoming the undisputed first super-middleweight champion of all time, the 31-year-old appears to be looking for his next enemy.

After Alvarez’s historic win, Eddy Reynoso, his longtime coach, revealed that Alvarez’s next likely opponent in the ring would be WBC middleweight holder Jermall Charlo, former champion two-time supermiddleweight David Benavidez, and current unified lightweight champion, Artur Beterbiev.

But while Reynoso appeared to have narrowed down his selection of Alvarez’s next opponent, the former coach of the year begged the WBC to allow Alvarez to take on an entirely different opponent.

“As a representative of Canelo,” Reynoso said during the WBC convention. “I am here to ask the World Boxing Council, the next match for Canelo will be the cruiser champion. [Ilunga] Makabu for May or June. ”

As Reynoso’s words echoed throughout the conference room, everyone present breathed a sigh of relief.

Long before Alvarez won every world title at 168 pounds, the Mexican product took the WBO light heavyweight crown ahead of the prestigious former athlete, Sergey Kovalev. Although Alvarez scored the winning goal in the 11th round, Reynoso urged Alvarez to refrain from fighting at 175 pounds. In addition to Reynoso’s words, Alvarez also openly admitted that fighting over 168 pounds isn’t ideal.

Despite their initial thoughts, Reynoso seems to have had a change of heart. At Makabu, the 34-year-old went on an undefeated run that spanned nearly a decade. The peak in the career of South African residents, comes on 31 January 2020.

On that night, Makabu produced a close decisive victory over Michal Cieslak to claim the vacant WBC crown. Since then, Makabu has defended her world title with a seventh round win over Olanrewaju Durodola.

Although Reynoso has made it clear that his weight star wants nothing more than to compete for the world championship in the fifth division, the final decision lies with Mauricio Sulaiman.

While he was surprised at first, Sulaiman, and the entire WBC sanctioning body, wasted no time in making their decision.

“This was a huge surprise,” said Sulaiman. “But the WBC unanimously approved Saul Canelo Alvarez to fight for the cruiser world championship.”