A prospective — and unlikely — title bout between Canelo Alvarez and Avni Yildirim is still alive.
The WBC ordered the fight for its vacant super middleweight title on Aug. 18 and a purse bid hearing was scheduled for Sept. 21. However, because no progress has been made, the sanctioning body pushed back the date to Oct. 6.
If Alvarez and Yildirim can’t arrange the fight by then, any promoter could bid for it.
“The WBC is officially confirming the postponement of the purse offer ceremony for the Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez vs Avni Yildirim fight for the vacant WBC Super Middleweight championship,” the WBC said in a statement. “The new date has been set for Tuesday, October 6 and will be conducted on an open video conference.”
The potential matchup is fraught with problems.
Alvarez is in a legal battle with promotional company (Golden Boy) and streaming service (DAZN), which makes it difficult to put together a title fight.
And DAZN reportedly refused to stream the prospective fight before Alvarez ignited the legal battle by filing a lawsuit for alleged breach of contract, which raises the question: Who would televise or stream it?
Alvarez remains under contract with DAZN. Could he possibly fight on another platform?
Yildirim (21-2, 12 KOs) is ranked No. 1 by the WBC. He was expected to fight then-beltholder David Benavidez if Benavidez beat Roamer Angulo last month. However, Benavidez lost the title on the scales before the fight.
The WBC later ordered Yildirim and Alvarez to fight for the vacant title.
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