Canelo Alvarez loses undisputed status after IBF strips him of title for failing to fight mandatory challenger

Saul "Canelo" Alvarez is no longer undisputed super middleweight champion. Alvarez was stripped of his IBF title after failing to defend his belt against a long-overdue mandatory title defense, the sanctioning body announced on Friday.

Alvarez was ordered on May 13 to defend his title against IBF mandatory challenger William Scull, an order that came less than two weeks after he defended his four world championships against Jaime Munguia. Scull was not an appealing opponent financially, being a relative unknown outside of hardcore boxing circles.

A purse bid was ordered for the fight on May 27, stipulating the bid would take place on June 6. Both Scull and Alvarez's teams contacted the IBF before the scheduled bid date, requesting a postponement before later notifying the sanctioning body that the two sides had reached an agreement.

"On June 18, 2024, the IBF received emails from both parties indicating that an agreement had been reached," IBF officials stated in a press statement. "Accordingly, the IBF sent notification that the purse bid rescheduled for June 18, 2024, had been cancelled. However, the terms of the 'agreement' were not disclosed to the IBF. Tom Brown, on behalf of Saul Alvarez, sent a letter to the IBF on July 5, 2024, requesting an exception to participate in an optional defense of the Super Middleweight title on September 14, 2024, against a fighter to be determined.

"On July 19, 2024, the IBF Board of Directors met via video conference to discuss this matter. A majority of the directors determined that the request should not be considered pursuant to Rule 11.A [which] states in part:

'Once the IBF has sent out the notice of the date of the purse bid, or once a contract has been signed for a mandatory bout, no request for an exception can be made.'"

Once Alvarez announced a fight with Edgar Berlanga on Sept. 14 , the IBF determined Alvarez had violated multiple rules regarding championship obligations and moved to strip Alvarez of his title.

This is not the first time the IBF has stripped Alvarez of a championship, previously stripping him of his middleweight title in 2019 for failing to come to terms for a deal with mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko.

Alvarez has recently faced increased criticism for failing to fight the toughest challenges available to him, including previous WBC and WBA mandatory challengers David Benavidez and David Morrell.

The Benavidez fight, especially, was the most in demand for Alvarez. After years as Alvarez's mandatories for those two sanctioning bodies, both Benavidez and Morrell moved to light heavyweight after feeling they would never receive a shot at the undisputed champion, though Benavidez has suggested he would move back to 168 pounds to face Alvarez.

Alvarez recently blew off the idea of a fight with Benavidez, suggesting Benavidez hasn't earned the fight despite Benavidez being undefeated and twice holding the WBC super middleweight title, along with several wins over current or former champions.

Berlanga was shot up the WBA rankings to a mandatory position following Morrell moving up to 175 pounds, giving Alvarez a mandatory opponent for one sanctioning body who also happened to be a fighter Alvarez and his team had been angling to fight before and after the Munguia bout.