Alternate Path: WBC creates one for Canelo

By Norm Frauenheim

The echoes from last week’s noisy Terence Crawford-World Boxing Council feud include lots of talk about what’s next for an always contentious business suddenly facing some fundamental change.

Still, it’s a guessing game. The only sure thing is that Crawford and the WBC won’t be exchanging Christmas cards this month. All else remains unpredictable. In other words: Business as usual.

Amid all the personal insults and profanity, however, one thing got lost in the WBC’s decision to strip Crawford of its super-middleweight belt for what it said was a failure to pay a $300,000 sanctioning fee. Crawford denied he had agreed to pay anything at all in an angry rant that made fee sound like just another f-word.

Take the belt, said Crawford, who doesn’t need it any more anyway. His undisputed resume is forever there, witnessed throughout his masterful decision over Canelo Alvarez by more than 72,000 at Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium and a Netflix audience in mid-September.  

The WBC can take the belt.

But not the legacy.

The WBC strip, however, created a path for Canelo to reclaim it.

Canelo, the longtime face of Mexican boxing, has already announced he intends to be back, sometime next year after he recovers from left-elbow surgery, which he underwent in October.

For the first time in years, Canelo will be without a belt, especially the WBC’s green belt, by far the most valued one by fighters throughout the acronym era.

Before the Mexico City-based WBC stripped Crawford, the guess was that Canelo would have to face Crawford all over again in a problematic bid to reclaim the WBC belt, long the crown jewel in a collection that includes WBA, WBO, IBF and — increasingly — The Ring.

Crawford’s skillful victory in September suggests that a second fight would play out the same way. Once again, Crawford would dominate.

In the September showdown’s initial aftermath, there looked to be only one way for Canelo to regain a world title at super-middle. He had to go through Crawford. But the WBC opened an alternate path by stripping Crawford and ordering a Hamzah Sheeraz-Christian Mbilli fight for the vacant belt.

Canelo’s chances at regaining a title? Against Crawford or the Sheeraz-Mbilli winner? Dumb questions. After what happened in September, Canelo’s best shot is the latter, against Sheeraz or Mbilli.

Canelo’s are slim to none against Crawford, who goes into the New Year apparently undecided about his future, yet undisputed in the pound-for-pound debate. He’s the consensus No.1, rare in a business known more for only disputes.

By now, of course, the WBC’s relationship with Canelo is no secret. David Benavidez, a Phoenix born-and-forged fighter and current WBC light-heavyweight champion, was the WBC’s longtime interim champion at 168 pounds.

Interim doesn’t mean much, but it is supposed to come with a mandatory shot at the champion. In this case, it was Canelo. But Benavidez never got that mandatory, and the WBC never enforced it with even a threat to strip Canelo.

The WBC has been ripped for its favorable treatment of Canelo. To be sure, Crawford repeated it in his broadside.

That said – and Crawford said plenty, it’s still not clear whether he’ll be fighting for any kind of belt anymore. Before the WBC stripped him, there had been speculative reports that Canelo wanted a rematch. There were also speculative reports that Crawford would ask for the $100-million-plus purse Canelo received in September.

A sequel might attract streaming services willing to pay a fortune for an escalated episode of drama and trash talk. But heightened hostility between Crawford and WBC might be a hurdle. Could the two ever do business together again?

Reported options for Crawford also include a bid for another title at another weight, 160-pounds. At 38-years-old, however, retirement is still another possibility. Crawford just delivered a singular performance, one that reminded us why boxing was once called The Sweet Science.

It would be hard to top that one and maybe even harder to recreate, especially if Canelo opts to take the easier path.