Canelo Alvarez, the unified super middleweight world title holder will make his first defense Sunday 28th of February.

It hasn’t been long since Alvarez was last in the ring, demolishing Callum Smith in December, it would safe to assume that Alvarez took a smaller bout in the hopes to recover and get the first defense underway, rather than challenge 168-pound division fellow titlists Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant.

The simple answer is that in this instance, Alvarez was required to take a mandatory no. 1 contender, in order to hold on to the WBC super middleweight title. Although considered an immediate victory, Alvarez still risks the unification opportunities and major money-making fights by taking on Yildirim.

Who is Avni Yildirim? A stand out amateur in his home country, where he went 120-12.Yildirim won the national championship five times, he also won bronze at the Mediterranean Championships and represented Turkey at the World Championships in 2013 Kazakhstan.

In 2019, Yildirim reeled off five consecutive wins as a professional fighter in 11 months to put himself in the spot to take on Anthony Dirrell for the vacant WBC 168-pound title in February. Going down in the tenth round, Yilidirim hasn’t fought since but has earned his spot as a mandatory challenger for Alvarez’ title.

Although not the title defence many were hoping for Alvarez, there’s something about risking everything on an underdog that makes it interesting. Find out where to watch the fight.

MAIN CARD

Canelo Alvarez vs Avlin Yildirim