Canelo Alvarez must face mandatory challenger after next fight, says WBC

WBC President Jose Sulaiman says that junior middleweight titlist Canelo Alvarez will be afforded one more optional title defense, but after that, he must face his mandatory challenger. Vanes Martirosyan and Erislandy Lara are scheduled to meet in November in a WBC eliminator.

"If he fights just before or right after their fight then we will allow him to take one other fight but if its not (in that time frame) then we won't allow it. Since Lara and Martirosyan are fighting in November we will allow Alvarez one more fight before he faces the winner of that fight because they will have just fought."

Alvarez (41-0-1, 30 KO) demolished Josesito Lopez on September 15, and has reportedly been looking to return in December. The schedule is currently filling up fast, and there have been no strong Canelo rumors just yet. There is also the matter of the strong discussion of him facing Miguel Cotto on May 4, 2013, should they both win upcoming fights. Cotto faces Austin Trout on December 1.

There's also another potential problem here: The Martirosyan-Lara fight was supposed to be the HBO co-feature on November 10, with Orlando Salido facing Mikey Garcia in the main event. But Salido has pulled out of that date with a broken finger, so it's a question of whether or not Martirosyan-Lara will actually happen in November.

It's easy to be skeptical, but to be fair to everyone, the last time Sulaiman insisted a mandatory for a WBC favorite would take place, it was Chavez Jr-Martinez, and it did. Of course, he let Chavez avoid it a few times first, but...