Boxing Challenge: PBC and Boxing Notes

Finishing up the boxing challenge from the weekend from the PBC in Oxon Hill, Maryland, where both favorites notched impressive victories.

Former minor junior lightweight champion Javier Fortuna demolished former minor featherweight champion Jesus Cuellar in only two rounds in a lightweight bout.
Fortuna knocked Cuellar down near the end of the first round and might have finished him then and there, but the bell delayed the ending until the following round when two additional knockdowns ended the fight.
Cuellar looks to be near the end of the line, while Fortuna might be an opponent for Gervonta Davis after Davis dispatches Yuriorkis Gamboa as he is expected to do in December.

Junior middleweight Brian Castano bounced back from his draw with Erislandy Lara with a TKO win over Wale Omotoso when Omotoso couldn't continue at the end of the fifth round due to a shoulder injury, I thought Castano won all five rounds, but Omotoso did fire back and land enough to make it interesting.
Omotoso will likely return to undercards, while Castano could still be in the mix at junior middleweight considering the depth of the PBC at the 154 pound division against WBA /IBF champion Julian Williams, Erislandy Lara in a rematch, the winner of the WBC title rematch between Tony Harrison and Jermell Charlo or possibly Jarrett Hurd, should he decide to stay in the division.

The WBC is well on its way to replacing the WBA as the most ridiculous sanctioning body (although knowing the WBA, I'm sure that it won't take long for them to say "Hold my beer".) as they use clever names that sound prestigious for their "world" such as silver, diamond, etc compared to the WBA's super (the real champion), regular and interim titles.
In any case, there should only be one champion for each sanctioning body and the minor titles?
Well, there used to be this thing called being the number one contender that if they held a title at all, it was a regional title that held importance such as the NABF, USBA and the European championships.

However, the latest WBC title takes the cake and will result in even fewer unified champions.
The WBC's recent decision to create something called their "franchise" champion strains the term for ridiculous and it's a stain on boxing.
The first fighter that was given this was Canelo Alvarez and minor beltholder Jermall Charlo was elevated to the full championship.
Next up was Vasyl Lomachenko, who had made unifying all four titles at lightweight his goal and went out of his way to make a fight with Luke Campbell for the vacant WBC title to grab the third title that he needed.
Shortly thereafter, Lomachenko is stripped of the 'real' WBC title, it gets handed to Devin Haney and as a result, after next spring when Lomachenko fights the Richard Commey-Teofimo Lopez winner, that winner will have three titles when they could have four.
The franchise champion is not only a scam to create more titles and lessen the odds of a fully unified four-belt champion, but it's also a money-making scam.
In the case of Lomachenko, they'll continue to receive sanctioning fees for "franchise" defenses, which is even stupider when you consider that franchise champions cannot lose their title designation even with a loss and they can milk said fees from Devin Haney's title defenses!
What I'd really like to see is for Lomachenko to tell the WBC to shove their franchise belt and state this- I won your real title, I don't want this made-up title just for you to keep your hands in my pocket, give me the title I won in the ring or I won't be participating in these fights.
AKA- I'm not giving you money to sanction something meaningless.
It's the only way to make this silliness go away.

DAZN started the Kovalev-Alvarez fight after 1 o'clock in the morning after an agreement with UFC boss Dana White to not have the UFC event run at the same time as the Canelo fight.
While I understand the reasoning behind the decision for both sides, the question that I would ask is this- IF you did not want to make the audience choose or you didn't really care about the audience being able to watch both events, Why did one or the other insist on running on the same date?
This hasn't bothered promoters before, why the sudden concern?
When I arrived at the road office and began to watch the DAZN coverage, I was there for two hours and forty-five minutes and watched the one round of Ryan Garcia vs Romero Duno before the start of the main event.
I understand not wanting to lose viewers from either side and DAZN has claimed to gain subscribers from the tactic, but that could be a short-term victory.
I understand working with another entity to help both sides, but couldn't DAZN either start earlier and have Canelo's fight before the UFC card or put Canelo-Kovalev in the middle of the card at least?
It's not a good move to have the games biggest start fighting at 1:30 in the morning and hopefully, DAZN takes their money (subscribers), runs, and does not do anything like this again.

As for Canelo Alvarez, who may not be the best fighter in the world, but certainly is boxing's biggest draw and star. it is interesting to think of what's next for the two-division (nope not counting his minor title at 168) champion and has he boxed himself into a corner with all the fighters that he has ruled out facing.

I have my doubts that Canelo stays at light heavyweight to defend the WBO title that he won from Sergey Kovalev.
Kovalev had fought a mandatory (Anthony Yarde) before his fight with Canelo, so Canelo wouldn't have to fight a mandatory challenger right away, although his mandatory would be fellow Mexican Gilberto Ramirez, who has yet to fight at light heavyweight, but used the WBO rule that a champion of theirs that vacates a title to move up in weight will automatically become the number one contender in their new division.
Oleksandr Usyk has used this rule to be the heavyweight mandatory and Terence Crawford has used this rule twice in his career, so it's not created for Ramirez.
Canelo-Ramirez would be a strong draw for the Latino audience and it might be able to be made, although who knows what Canelo will want to do if it's made, it will be a draw.
I could see Canelo fighting Ramirez, even with Ramirez fighting for Top Rank, and I can see him fighting WBA champion Dmitry Bivol, who is a promotional free agent, isn't a huge puncher or an especially big light heavyweight, but as much as I would love to see it, I see no chance that Canelo steps into the ring with WBC and IBF champion Artur Beterbiev, who like Gilberto Ramirez is promoted by Top Rank.
Canelo will fight GGG two more times before he fights that wrecking ball!

The natural fight would be Gennady Golovkin for the third time, but Alvarez insists that GGG brings nothing to the table that interests him.
I disagree but assuming that is actually the case, who would offer anything for him?
If Alvarez's stance of not fighting Golovkin for the third time is firm, the other fight that would make sense would be WBA super middleweight champion, Callum Smith.
Smith has the real WBA title, won the World Boxing Super Series last year, and comes with a built-in backstory since Canelo knocked out Callum's brother Liam in 2016.
Canelo vs Smith makes sense and could be an entertaining fight, but Canelo would be favored.

The three other champions at super middleweight don't seem likely for Alvarez either.
WBC champion David Benavidez and IBF kingpin Caleb Plant are promoted by PBC and off the table and while WBO boss Billy Joe Saunders is with DAZN through Matchroom, Saunders is a lighter Tyson Fury as he outboxes, frustrates and confuses opponents.
Saunders won't bring a lot of notice, likely will make a less than exciting fight and I'd rate him a live dog to pull a massive upset.
Add all of those factors up and I'd rate Saunders a long shot to land a Canelo fight.

Canelo could drop all the back to 160, but I'm not sure who is there either that he'll be interested in fighting.
Alvarez says IBF champion Gennady Golovkin and WBO titleholder Demetrius Andrade hold next to no interest for him, WBC champion Jermall Charlo is with PBC and Alvarez's minor titleholder in the WBA (Alvarez holds the main WBA belt) is Ryota Murata, who is promoted by Top Rank and would only bring interest if Canelo was willing to go to Japan.
The WBA's number one contender is Chris Eubank Jr and Eubank would be a draw in England, but not in the U.S. yet as Eubank's American debut vs Matt Korobov is on Jermall Charlo's undercard for Charlo's fight vs Dennis Hogan and likely would only fight Canelo if Canelo didn't want to lose his WBA title and was forced to fight Eubank.

So to answer the question that I asked earlier- Has Canelo boxed himself into a corner?
Maybe not, perhaps there is a freak show for big money somewhere...