Boxing: Canelo Alvarez Next Fight Postponed, Yildirim Camp Made To Wait

The struggles that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is dealing with continue with the WBC postponing a purse bid involving Avnil Yildirim until Oct. 6. It will be recalled that the WBC wanted both fighters to face off for the vacant super-middleweight title before internal issues on the Mexican’s end made headlines.

Alvarez has filed a lawsuit against his DAZN and Golden Boy Promotions for breach of contract. He is seeking roughly $280 million in damages and there has been no significant progress in settling the row.

It was in 2018 when the Mexican Brawler signed a $365 million deal with DAZN for 11 fights, BBC reported. Alvarez has filed 11 complaints, including breach of contract, negligence interference and fraud.

"I'm the pound-for-pound No 1 in the world. I'm not scared of any opponent in the ring, and I'm not going to let failures of my broadcaster or promoters keep me out of the ring,” Alvarez said in a statement.

With that in consideration, Alvarez’s next potential opponent could be Yildirim of Turkey. The Turkish Wolf emerged as the mandatory challenger for the WBC super-middleweight title but will have to wait until Oct. 6 to see if he will need to hurdle the Mexican to win the title.

"We'll be happy if it's Canelo, and if it's then decided that Canelo will not fight, then I speak to my partners PBC. We have a contract with them and we have an agreement, so we'll speak to PBC and the president Mauricio Sulaiman,” promoter Ahmet Oner said to Sky Sports. "I am still hopeful for Canelo."

It was in February 2019 when Yildrim last enter the ring. He faced Anthony Dirrell but lost via technical split decision. But the fight was not spared from controversy. Dirrel suffered a nasty gash in the eye due to an accidental headbutt from Yildirim.

Dirrel would eventually lose the title to David Benavidez in September 2019. Yildirim was scheduled to get his shot but an elbow injury prevented that from happening. Benavidez was scheduled to face Alexis Angulo instead in April but the COVID-19 pandemic shunned all that. A rescheduled bout was set for August but Benavidez missed weight, making the super-middleweight title available, Boxingscene reported.

Right now, Yildirim is made to wait as Alvarez tries to resolve things on his end. Little has progressed in settling the internal issues and contract disputes on the Mexican’s end. A clearer answer should be known on Oct. 6.