IBF orders Canelo to face mandatory challenger Scull

WIlliam Scull has been Canelo Alvarez’s IBF mandatory challenger since 2022

As speculation abounds regarding Canelo Alvarez’s next opponent, the IBF has pulled an IBF and finally ordered him to face longtime mandatory challenger William Scull. Scull’s promoter, AGON Sports and Events, claims the pair have four weeks to come to terms and avoid a purse bid.

The Cuban-born, German-based Scull (22-0, 9 KO) has exactly one noteworthy win: a July 2022 decision over Evgeny Shvedenko in a final eliminator. He’s been booked for eight rounds or fewer in each of his last three matchups, including a UD over Sean Hemphill on Canelo’s (61-2-2, 39 KO) last undercard.

There’s no question that Scull is Canelo’s least-known and least-lucrative opponent since Avni Yildirim, who was also an inopportune mandatory. There’s always the option of paying Scull to return to the bench, as Jermell Charlo did with Bakhram Murtazaliev, but that depends entirely on whether Scull elects to play ball. Canelo and co. could theoretically also try and claim that the WBA was next in the rotation to set up a showdown with Edgar Berlanga.

As Jake Donovan points out at The Ring, this isn’t Canelo’s first run-in with the IBF, who famously stripped him in 2019 when he failed to come to terms with Sergiy Derevyanchenko. We’ll see whether Canelo’s refusal to honor mandatory challenges once again comes back to bite him.