Canelo Alvarez-William Scull Purse Bid Once Again Delayed

Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez has a few more days than expected to figure out his next move.

The Ring has confirmed that another delay was met with the scheduled purse bid for Alvarez’s ordered title defense versus William Scull. A hearing that was on the schedule for June 13 was canceled on Wednesday, with the alert of the new date.

“The Saul Alvarez vs. William Scull purse bid has been postponed to Tuesday, June 18, 2024 at 12:00PM EST,” an IBF spokesperson informed all registered promoters via e-mail.

The fight was ordered on May 13 but the negotiation period was brought to a halt after just nine days. AGON Sports & Events—Scull’s promoter—informed the IBF of the failed talks between camps and requested an immediate purse bid. IBF rules state that either party can call for a purse bid at any time during negotiations.

A decision to go straight to a hearing is normally exercised when it was realized a deal cannot be reached. Often, delays are granted when the two sides believe with more time can come an agreement. There are other occasions, where an A-side such as Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 knockouts), The Ring champion at 168, merely flexes his celebrity muscle.

Either way, he remains obligated to honor the mandatory title defense.

IBF rules state that neither party can enter another fight once a fight is called by the sanctioning body. Ranked contenders who refuse to move forward are dropped below the top ten and ineligible to participate in IBF-sanctioned fights for at least six months.

The penalty is much stiffer for defending titlists.

IBF rule 5.c requires its champions to honor ordered mandatory title fights. Failure to honor the order “will be sufficient cause to have the Championships Committee and Board of Directors consider withdrawing recognition of the title.”

Alvarez has yet to make a mandatory defense for the WBA or IBF titles. He was actually the mandatory as the secondary WBA titleholder when he faced and defeated Callum Smith in their Dec. 2020 WBA title consolidation bout.

One month later, Caleb Plant (22-2, 13 KOs) honored his IBF mandatory title defense in a Jan. 2021 win over Caleb Truax.

Alvarez defeated Plant via eleventh-round knockout in their Nov. 2021 undisputed showdown in Las Vegas.

Brooklyn’s Edgar Berlanga (22-0, 17 KOs) was named the WBA mandatory challenger in April. It was believed that the Nuyorican would be next in line for the 168-pound crown. Those rumors intensified after Alvarez’s May 4 win over Jaime Munguia at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The actions taken by the IBF—and the absence of any movement from the WBA—has sorted out that rotation question.

Alvarez has made the most successful defenses among any male undisputed champion in the four-belt era (four). That feat came in large part to the sanctioning bodies generally not enforcing their rules as they have with its other champions.

Scull (22-0, 9 KOs) became the mandatory challenger after a July 2022 points win over Evgeny Shvedenko. The title eliminator between unbeaten contenders saw Scull—a Cuban export based in Berlin—win a lopsided unanimous decision.

Just three fights have followed for the 31-year-old. The most recent came in an eight-round victory over Sean Hemphill on May 4 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The fight took place on the non-televised undercard portion of Alvarez-Munguia.

Per IBF Rule 10.E, the winning bid will be split 65-35 in favor of Alvarez as the defending champ.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for The Ring and vice president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Follow @JakeNDaBox