With Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford set to clash in Las Vegas for undisputed super-middleweight supremacy, a fresh controversy has emerged — and it has little to do with the fighters. Promoter TKO, led by UFC CEO Dana White and bankrolled by Turki Alalshikh, has yet to confirm whether the four major sanctioning bodies will be permitted to present their belts to Saturday night’s winner.
WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman expressed frustration at the silence, revealing that repeated requests for clarity have gone unanswered. “How can you expect the best fighters in the world to compete for a championship when the rules are not respected and the official representatives … are denied?” Sulaiman said. “It is completely unbelievable and unacceptable.”
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All four sanctioning bodies - the WBC, WBO, WBA, and IBF - remain in limbo just days before fight night. Traditionally, their presidents are front and center in crowning the victor of an undisputed bout. The uncertainty, however, points to TKO’s larger ambition: replacing boxing’s fractured title system with its own belt and rankings, a move that would require changes to U.S. legislation.
For now, the optics are stark. A fight many view as the beginning of TKO’s takeover of boxing could also be remembered as the first time the sanctioning bodies were frozen out of their own championships. Sulaiman, though, insists he will not be sidelined quietly: “You can have two security guards in that corner trying to take me out because I will enter that ring.”
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