What’s Left For Canelo Alvarez From A Dying 168 lb. Division?

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has killed the super middleweight division on two fronts

First, he weeded out the pretenders to the throne on his way up the divisional ranks. That means removing guys like Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant, John Ryder, and Jaime Munguia from the elite (and borderline elite) ranks. Of those four, only Munguia is still a main stage presence at 168.

And then, from the other side of things, the Mexican superstar waited out legit high-end challengers David Benavidez and David Morrell, jolting them with an aggressive indifference that forced them to move up to light heavyweight rather than wait eternally for a deserved big ticket fight that would never come.

As things stand now, we have a Canelo Alvarez all alone at the top of 168 with, honestly, not much below him and a likely slaughter of a hapless Edgar Berlanga awaiting him on September 14.

On Saturday night in Quebec, Christian Mbilli scored a unanimous decision over the 38-year-old Sergiy Derevyanchenko, who is fast approaching the end of his days as a meaningful player in the sport. The fan-friendly, all-action Mbilli looked vulnerable at times against a fading veteran who suffered a left bicep injury and was basically fighting with one arm from the fourth round on. The performance did nothing to convince the boxing world that he deserves the no. 1 contender spot given to him by the WBC.

The favorite to get the next B-side slot versus Canelo is UK middleweight import Chris Eubank Jr., who makes much more commercial sense than competitive sense. It’ll probably be confirmed very early into a Canelo-Eubank clash that Eubank doesn’t belong in the ring with Canelo.

And below Mbilli and Eubank?

Jaime Munguia did well enough against Alvarez in their May meeting that he deserves a high ranking at super middleweight, even if a Canelo rematch won’t be in the works any time soon.

After that, there’s nothing, unless Vladimir Shishkin and Steven Nelson do something for anyone and/or a repackaged Caleb Plant can be re-sold against Canelo.

And, other than the wild card promise of a troubled Jermall Charlo and a so-so Cartlos Adames moving up, there’s not much at 160 to bring up to 168, either.

Diego Pacheco and Osleys Iglesias are promising, but they’re still prospects– and history tells us that, if they look TOO good and people talk too much about them, they may as well just move up to 175 with Benavidez and Morrell because Canelo will find a way to be offended over their challenger status.

Alvarez is, after all, the guy who said this not too long ago:

“I don’t need to fight anybody…I don’t need to prove to anybody anything…I don’t need to prove anything to anybody…It is what it is.”

That kind of attitude doesn’t bode well for the chance of healthy matchmaking, even if there were someone left to legitimately challenge him at this point.

The super middleweight division is dead at the moment and we may very well see the retirement of Canelo Alvarez before someone emerges from underneath the heavy hand of his careful matchmaking to dethrone him.