By Miguel Rivera
World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman is not holding a grudge against Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (47-1-1, 33KOs) for vacating the WBC middleweight title last week.
The sanctioning body had ordered him to face WBA/IBO/IBF middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin in the fall. Canelo decided to vacate the title, citing his displeasure with the WBC's 15 day deadline to reach an agreement.
After Canelo vacated the belt, the WBC named Golovkin as their middleweight beltholder.
Canelo's decision to vacate the title enraged a lot of fans, especially on the social networks, and they attacked him without mercy.
Sulaiman is planning to give Canelo a high ranking with the sanctioning body, once they establish his weight division.
"He has the qualities to be highly ranked. He was the world champion. We must first confirm if he wants to be a super welterweight or a middleweight. Once we confirm that, he will be ranked and can challenge anyone," Sulaiman said
"We wish him the best of luck, and believe that someday he will fight with Golovkin as he did with Mayweather, but it is not fair for people to attack him in that manner."
Sulaiman did explain, in detail, that Canelo and Golden Boy Promotions were well aware of the WBCs deadline for a fight with Golovkin several months in advance and only raised issues with the deadline after Canelo knocked out Amir Khan on May 7th.
"In January a document between Golden Boy and K2 was signed, and they agreed on the information within the document and it said that after [both fighters held their interim bouts] there would be 15 days of negotiations and then a purse bid, so we proceeded on our end and everyone was aware of all that," Sulaiman said.