Alvarez vs. Scull Preview
The ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia will host a dynamic title fight on Saturday, May 3rd. All-time great Canelo Alvarez is back in action against William Scull for the IBF middleweight title and he will be defending the WBA (Super), WBO and WBC titles.
Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KO) is coming off a unanimous decision win over Edgar Berlanga in September giving him his fifth straight victory since losing for just the second time in his career in 2022 to Dmitry Bicol for the WBA Super Light Heavyweight title.
The Mexican fighter was not shy about what type of fight fans will see out of him against Scull. “The only thing he will eat on Saturday will be my right fist," said Alvarez.
Alvarez refused to fight Scull in favor of Berlanga which forced him to vacate the IBF belt which Scull won with a win over Vladimir Shishkin in October. While Alvarez has been accused of ducking Scull, he responded by saying, "Everybody talks trash before the fight, but when they get in the ring with me, it's something different. He's going to feel something different, that's for sure. For me it's no different, but for him it is, and he's going to feel it, believe me, he said.
The 34-year-old will be fighting outside of the United States or Mexico for the first time in his career after signing a lucrative deal to fight four times in Saudi Arabia. Alvarez claims, “I'm getting ready to make history.”
The pundits are not giving Scull (23-0, 9 KO) much of a chance against Canelo, but the Cuban fighter does not care. "I fled Cuba, crossed borders and now I'm here to win. I don't care what the press says about me. I will fight calmly and with strategy," he said.
While Scull will be fighting the biggest fight of his career against the toughest fighter he has faced up to this point, he has remained confident. “They can say whatever they want. Even commentators can say whatever they want. It’s their criticisms because they really don’t know,” Scull said.
The 33-year-old is expecting a big result against Alvarez. “The knockout comes when it needs to come. A fight is a fight, and we’ll see if that difference will make a different fight on Saturday. If he has more knockouts or not, they just come in handy, but in my book, I’ve done my work and I’m able to do a great fight on Saturday.”
Alvarez is already one of the greatest fighters in boxing history with wins over Gennady Golovkin (twice), Billie Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant, Sergey Kovalev, Daniel Jacobs, Miguel Cotto, Erislandy Lara, Austin Trout, Shane Mosley, Kermit Cintron and Alfonso Gomez. He has nothing left to prove other than getting up for fights against fighters who want to shock the world.
Scull’s highest quality win came in his last fight against Shishkin. A win over Alvarez would be one of the biggest upsets in boxing history, but many other fighters have been in the same position and have failed to defeat Alvarez. What will Scull do different?
