SAN ANTONIO – Following a 13-month layoff, Canelo Alvarez wouldn’t mind a quick turnaround after facing Callum Smith on Saturday night.
Alvarez told BoxingScene.com and The Athletic during a joint interview Thursday that he is open to returning to the ring as early as sometime in February if he beats Smith and leaves the ring relatively unscathed. Eddie Hearn, whose Matchroom Boxing is promoting Alvarez for the Smith fight, revealed later Thursday that Alvarez could make a mandatory defense of the WBC super middleweight title against Avni Yildirim just two months after meeting Smith.
Mexico’s Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) and England’s Smith (27-0, 19 KOs) will fight for Smith’s WBA “super” 168-pound championship and the unclaimed WBC belt in the main event of an eight-fight card at Alamodome. It’ll mark the first fight for the 30-year-old Alvarez since he knocked out Russia’s Sergey Kovalev in the 11th round of their November 2019 fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas to win the WBO light heavyweight title.
Alvarez and Smith agreed to fight for Smith’s title when their deal was finalized last month. The WBC agreed last week to sanction Alvarez-Smith as a fight for its vacant super middleweight crown.
The WBC stipulated, however, that the Alvarez-Smith winner would have to make a mandatory defense of that title against Turkey’s Yildirim within 90 days or the winner would be stripped. The second-ranked Yildirim (21-2, 12 KOs) is the mandatory challenger for the WBC 168-pound crown.
David Benavidez was stripped of the WBC super middleweight title for the second time August 14 because the Phoenix native came in nearly three pounds overweight for an optional title defense against Colombia’s Alexis Angulo (26-2, 22 KOs) the next night at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Benavidez (23-0, 20 KOs) first surrendered that title after testing positive for cocaine in August 2018.
If he defeats Smith and Yildirim, Alvarez also would want to box May 8 in a higher-profile fight than his mandated defense against Yildirim.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.