Boxing

Canelo Alvarez Updated WBO Ranking After Terence Crawford Loss Hints At Next Fight

Canelo Alvarez has been given a new WBO ranking after losing to Terence Crawford, which speaks volumes about his fighting future.
Grant Young|
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Legendary Mexican boxer Canelo Alvarez lost his undisputed super middleweight championship belts after losing to Terence Crawford on September 13.

Canelo deserves a lot of respect for being willing to put his undisputed titles (which included being the WBO, WBC, WBA, IBF, and Ring Magazine champion in the 168-pound division) on the line against one of the world's other top pound-for-pound boxers.

While Canelo obviously earned a staggering amount of money and had the chance to add another legendary fighter's name to his resumé, the fact that Crawford was the smaller fighter heading into this bout made it so that Canelo had more to lose than Crawford in the eyes of fans.

And while nobody is discrediting Canelo for losing to Crawford, given that Crawford put together one of the greatest performances in modern boxing history, Canelo's fighting future is still uncertain.

Canelo vs Crawford
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It was no secret that Canelo was going to lose his champion status after Crawford got his hand raised against him earlier this month. However, it was always going to be interesting to see where Canelo landed in each of the aforementioned sanctioning bodies' rankings.

If Canelo had fallen far in each of the rankings, this might have meant that a rematch against Crawford was less likely. But if he claimed the No. 1 spot or was still near the top, then fighting Crawford would make even more sense than it already does, just given each guy's star power and the success of the first fight.

Canelo Alvarez's New WBO Ranking Turns Heads

The World Boxing Commission (WBC) was the first sanctioning body to release its new super middleweight rankings after Crawford beat Canelo. And the fact that Canelo was ranked No. 1 by the WBC seemed to set a precedent that the other sanctioning bodies could follow.

The World Boxing Organization (WBO) was the next such organization to release its rankings after Canelo vs. Crawford. And like the WBC, they also slotted Canelo at No. 1 in super middleweight.

Again, this doesn't come as a surprise. But Canelo actually receiving this ranking is important, if only because it shows that these sanctioning bodies don't think he has lost too much of a step, and would still be able to beat just about anybody in the world at his weight class.

As we mentioned earlier, Canelo being the No. 1 contender in all these super middleweight rankings makes a rematch against Crawford even more likely.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young is a Staff Writer for On SI’s Boxing, New York Mets, Indiana Fever, and Women’s Fastbreak sites. Before joining SI in 2024, he wrote for various boxing and sports verticals such as FanBuzz and NY Fights. Young has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in creative writing with an emphasis on sports nonfiction from the University of San Francisco, where he played five seasons of Division 1 baseball. He fought Muay Thai professionally in Thailand in 2023, loves a good essay, and is driven crazy trying to handle a pitpull puppy named Aura. Young lives in San Diego and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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