By Rick Reeno
MGM Grand, Las Vegas - Late Monday night, BoxingScene.com reported that Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) had rejected the involvement of the World Boxing Council [WBC] with the upcoming fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Canelo vs. Chavez Jr., which takes place on HBO Pay-Per-View, will happen this coming Saturday night from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The contest takes place at a catch-weight of 164.5-pounds. Canelo, who holds the WBO junior middleweight title, is moving up from 155-pounds.
Canelo explains, that from the moment his fight with Chavez Jr. was announced - the WBC was pushing to get involved with the fight.
After Canelo and his team rejected the advances of WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman, the sanctioning body announced that they created a commemorative WBC "Huichol" belt - which they planned to present to the winner of this contest.
According to Canelo, the Huichol belt was nothing more than a strategy by the WBC to gain promotional for their personal interests.
"From the very beginning, the WBC wanted to get involved with this fight, and when we as a team said 'no, it's not going to happen, there is no WBC, it's not for a world title' - we knew that at some point something was going to come up. We spoke to Mr. Sulaiman and told him that he was not going to be involved. He then came up with this Huichol belt and I knew that he was going to use that against me in a negative way, to make me look like the bad guy - that I want nothing to do with the Huichols," Canelo stated.
"That not true, quite the contrary. My entire attire is made by Huichols. Since I've been 14 years old, I've been friends with people from the Huichol culture. All of my fights in Nayarit, they were there. My attire is being made by them, they have been invited, there is a Huichol fighter in my gym. This was just to be done to make me look like a bad guy."
"This was done [by the WBC] with other interests, there is a company there on the belt. [The belt has] been going through a tour, conferences, exhibits at the hotels."
Canelo confirms that his beef with the WBC is stemming from last year's disagreement over the mandatory defense against Gennady Golovkin.
The Mexican boxer states that Sulaiman was pressuring him to make a decision to fight Golovkin - and only gave him 15 days to make up his mind. During that time period, Canelo was on trial in Miami over a contractual dispute with his former promoter Tuto Zabala of All Star Boxing.
Canelo's handlers attempted to extend the 15 day time period, Sulaiman refused. Canelo responded by vacating the WBC title - which the sanctioning body gave over to Golovkin, who at the time held the interim-belt.
"[Sulaiman] was pressuring me on a 15 day basis to make a decision on this fight with Golovkin, when I had some problems in Miami. You guys know about that. I can't attend one thing and another at the same time. He made it seem like I was afraid of Golovkin, so I gave up the belt. So that's why they are not involved, not now," Canelo said.
"I just want you know one thing. I won that title based on sacrifice, based on training, based on balls, based on hard work and discipline and beating a great fighter in Miguel Cotto - so that [Sulaiman] can turn around and hand over it to a guy who didn't even work out or train in the gym, didn't even break a sweat, didn't even fight to earn that belt. So you're going to tell me that's respectful?"
