Canelo Alvarez New WBC Ranking Sparks Terence Crawford Rematch Questions

It's going to take a long time for the boxing community to move on from Terence Crawford defeating Canelo Alvarez in their historic showdown for Canelo's undisputed super middleweight belts back on September 13.

Then again, nobody wants to move on from the masterclass performance that Crawford displayed (aside from Canelo fans), as many believe it was one of the best showings a boxer has put forth in the ring this century.

Ultimately, both of these guys are generational greats, and each will have already begun setting their sights on the future to see what their next fight will be. While there's the option that both Crawford and Canelo could decide to ride off into the sunset and retire, there is simply too much money to be made through other potential fights for that to be a likely scenario for either.

In fact, the most lucrative and intriguing next bout for both Canelo and Crawford would probably be them facing each other in a rematch.

Canelo Alvarez Receives New WBC Ranking After Terence Crawford Loss

Canelo vs Crawford — IMAGO / Hoganphotos

While Canelo was the undisputed super middleweight champion, the sanctioning body that he has arguably been the most closely associated with in his career is the World Boxing Council (WBC). This is because Canelo became the youngest boxer to earn the WBC light middleweight title in 2011, when he was just 20 years old.

Canelo also held the WBC middleweight title two times in his career, and had held the WBC super middleweight title since December 19, 2020 (when he beat Callum Smith for the vacant belt) before he lost it to Crawford last weekend.

The WBC released their new super middleweight rankings, thus being the first of the four major sanctioning bodies to do so after the Canelo vs. Crawford fight. And they listed Canelo as the new No. 1 contender.

MORE: The Biggest Winner From The Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford Fight Wasn't Crawford

While this ranking might make it seem like Canelo is a clear-cut favorite to get a rematch against Crawford, the reality isn't so obvious. Christian Mbilli (who produced a great fight on the Netflix undercard before the main event last Saturday) is the interim WBC super middleweight champion, and would therefore technically be in front of Canelo in the pecking order, if the WBC were to play it by the books.

Then again, the WBC doesn't have to abide by this if they don't want to. And given that Crawford vs. Mbilli would receive a sliver of the attention that a Canelo vs. Crawford rematch would do, it's highly unlikely that Mbilli will be next for Crawford.

The bottom line is that regardless of Canelo being the WBC No. 1 contender, both he and Crawford essentially can fight whomever they want to next — including each other.

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