NYC Buzz Builds: Canelo-Scull Press Conference Tomorrow Marks Start of Undisputed Championship Journey

Super middleweight champions Canelo Alvarez and William Scull will hold a press conference tomorrow, March 6th at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City to begin promoting their undisputed 168-lb championship on May 3rd in Riyadh.

Road to Crawford

Scull is Canelo’s tune-up to prepare him for his fight against Terence Crawford on September 13th. Alvarez also needs Scull to capture his belt to hold the undisputed championship when he faces Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs).

Thursday’s press conference will start at 6:00 p.m. ET. It’s unclear how they will market the Canelo-Scull fight to the fans in the U.S. Scull doesn’t speak English and isn’t well known, and the fans who know of him feel he’s a champion in name only. He’s a belt-holder and that’s his only value.

On the undercard, heavyweight contenders Martin Bakole and Efe Ajagba will fight. Depending on who else is on the card, that fight could easily steal the show. Canelo needs to step up his game from his last two fights against Jaime Munguia and Edgar Barlanga. In both contests, Canelo gassed out after four rounds and took a lot of necessary punishment against contenders that David Benavidez or David Morrell would have wiped out.

Retirement Tour?

I hate to say it, but there’s literally no demand for this fight. Turki Alalshikh should have put Canelo’s feet to the fire and forced him to fight someone good who the fans want to see instead of this guy.

Canelo is so rich now, with his estimated fortune of $250 million, that he doesn’t have the hunger anymore to take the risky fights that fans want to see. He’s like a battle-worn soldier that has left the frontlines and wants no part of combat. Alvarez is showing signs of battle fatigue, and is basically choosing to stay in the rear, cleaning rifles and cooking. That’s what fights like this amount to.

Some feel this is just part of Alvarez’s retirement tour to ensure he keeps winning until he hangs up his gloves. Although the Cuban Scull is undefeated and technically the IBF champion, he looked worse than horrible, capturing his title with a lackluster 12-round unanimous decision win over Vladimir Shishkin on October 19th last year in Stadthalle, Falkensee, Germany.

Many fans, including this writer, felt that Shishkin deserved to win that fight. I saw Shishkin winning 10-2. Scull is slow, weak, and has a low work rate. How he looked in that fight, he’d have lost to Canelo’s last two opponents, Edgar Berlanga and Jaime Munguia.

Having all four belts on the line will be one of the selling points for the Canelo-Crawford fight. It allows Crawford to try and become a three-division undisputed champion. Casual boxing fans won’t care whether there’s one belt or four at stake for the Canelo-Crawford fight, and the hardcore fans don’t see it as meaningful. It would be better if no belts were on the line for the Canelo vs. Crawford fight. Make it an exhibition,