Canelo Alvarez will hop back in the ring this year and no, it won’t be against Jake Paul. Following Paul’s bout against Mike Tyson last year, the YouTuber-turned-boxer called out Canelo for a mega-bucks duel, but Alvarez has side-stepped that for now, saying “That event can wait till I retire.”
Retirement doesn’t seem to be on the mind of the Mexican legend yet, however, as Alvarez will enter a unification bout against William Scull in May 2025 in Saudi Arabia, the first of four fights he has signed up for with promoter Turki Alalshikh.
Following the announcement, Canelo was quickly made the odds-on favourite at the bookmakers. This is even though he’s fighting outside Mexico and the US for the first time. If you look at the experts’ betting predictions for any sport, from football to boxing, you will see that sometimes after a thorough analysis of the event there are arguments in favour of the underdog. But what about this fight, can Cuban boxer Scull cause an upset?
William Scull’s Background
Cuba’s William “El Indomable” Scull is the only other boxer beside Alvarez to currently hold a super middleweight title. Scull scored the IBF World Super Middleweight title in Germany last year against Vladimir Shishkin, for the biggest win of his career.
Now he’s been projected into a position of having a shot at becoming the unified super middle world champion, by wrenching the WBA (Super), WBC and WBO crowns from Canelo.
The 32-year-old orthodox fighter has a 23-0 career record, but there’s nothing in that record to suggest that he can defy some huge underdog odds in Saudi Arabia and take down someone of Alvarez’s calibre.
Can Scull Challenge?
Scull is taking on a vastly experienced Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KOs), and stepping into such a high-profile fight for the first time could be overwhelming. He won’t have dealt with this kind of pressure before, as he’s not only fighting in front of a huge crowd but also a massive prime-time PPV crowd in North America.
Scull, who stated that he was wholeheartedly grateful for this opportunity, turned pro in 2016 and has managed to maintain his unbeaten status. It genuinely feels like it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity on the big stage for him. The strength of Scull lies in his work, as he always seems to be busy enough on his feet.
However, with only 9 knockouts in his 23 professional fights, whether he’s got the power to out-punch Canelo is a different matter. Putting Canelo to the canvas is probably his only, yet unlikely route to victory, because there’s little chance that he out-boxes his opponent.
The Fight Is on Canelo’s Terms
Canelo is the consummate pro and will back his training. Scull was Canelo’s IBF mandatory last year, but Alvarez refused to fight him and tackled Edgar Berlanga instead, meaning his IBF title was stripped.
Interestingly, Berlanga is a similar-rated boxer to Scull. There was nothing in his previous record to suggest that he belonged in the ring with Alvarez either, and while the fight went the distance, Alvarez was victorious by a country mile on the judge’s scorecards.
That’s the thing. Canelo’s technically so good, is supremely technical and ring savvy. Even fighters like Gennadiy Golovkin, Liam Smith and Julio César Chávez have found Canelo too much.
So Scull isn’t likely to turn out to be the toughest of challengers for Canelo, and he’s not supposed to be. He’s just a stepping stone in the way of something bigger. The fight against Scull is going to be seen as little more than Canelo’s warm-up for an expected September super fight against Terence Crawford in Las Vegas.
It looks like the camp has taken an opportunity to get some ring sharpness for Canelo and to see him face Crawford as a unified champion. However, Alvarez needs to remain 100% focused on Scull for now.
Who Will Win?
This is a strange fight in terms of predicting the result because Canelo should stop Scull without any problems. But the Mexican fighter has to have one eye on September’s lucrative shot against Crawford, and may be looking to benefit from time in the ring ahead of that. It could be more important than the manner of victory.
In each of his last four fights, Canelo has sent his opponent to the canvas, but all bouts still went the distance. It wouldn’t therefore be a surprise to see this one go the same way. Canelo should be in control and be able to pick off his opponent at any time, but he may end up just toying with him and getting those precious minutes in.
