Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez is returning to the ring this Saturday to defend his WBA (Super) and The Ring super-middleweight title against a dangerous rival. The Mexican fighter is ready to continue hissuccesful boxingand add another victory to his impressive record.
The 30-year-old is ready to continue his incredible career with a win over Avni Yildirim and defend his titles two months after his last fight against Callum Smith in San Antonio, Texas to close the year 2020.
Alvarez has had a couple of moved years when he fought some big fights and faced some setbacks in his career. Canelo is now a 4-division champion but there was a time when he was stripped of his titles, just like it happened to several stars in the past. Today, we’re going to take a look at that situation.
Why did Canelo Alvarez lose his belts?
Back in August of 2019, the Mexican pugilist was stripped of his IBF middleweight championship. The reason? He was unable to agree to a fight to defend his belt and the organization made the decision to vacate the title.
He was given some free passes to keep looking for a fight but when the deadline passed, the fighter lost his belt. IBF President Daryl Peoples explained the decision with a letter, via Dan Rafael of ESPN:
“It is crystal clear from the correspondence that on July 26, 2019, [Golden Boy matchmaker] Robert Diaz, on behalf of Golden Boy Promotions, agreed that Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez would relinquish the IBF middleweight championship title, with no further negotiations or purse bid, if there was no completed deal between him and Derevyanchenko by the agreed upon extended deadline of Monday July 29, 2019 at 3 p.m. ET. As of today, August 1, 2019, the IBF has been advised that there is no such deal.”
Canelo has moved on from that category and is ready to defend his super middleweight title against the Turkish opponent this weekend, trying to continue his good moment at the highest level of boxing. He’s not letting any organization or fighter taking his belt now and he’ll try to keep things that way when he faces Yildirim.