Canelo Alvarez refuses to look past his underdog opponent, IBF super middleweight champion William Scull, towards the mega-fight against Terence Crawford in September. WBA, WBC and WBO champion Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) said today that he’s “100%” dialed in for the fight against Scull (23-0, 9 KOs) on May 3rd at The Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Unwanted Fight

It’s got to be annoying for Canelo because fans want to hear more about the Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) than they do about Scull. They don’t rate the Cuban fighter, and view this guy along the same lines as Alvarez’s last opponent, Edgar Berlanga, who had zero going for him other than cruiserweight size.

Scull isn’t the ideal fighter to help build interest in Canelo’s match against Crawford. He needed Osleys Iglesias, Diego Pacheco, Janibek Alimkhanuly, or Christian Mbilli. Even Jake Paul would be preferable to Scull.

The problem with Jake is that the interest that the fight would bring in would dwarf what Canelo vs. Crawford would do. Bud isn’t popular outside of the ultra-hardcore boxing fan. Casuals don’t know who the 37-year-old Crawford is, and regular non-boxing fans have never heard of him.

The Canelo-Scull undercard is still being filled out. Currently, the only fight on the undercard is the heavyweight clash between Martin Bakole and Efe Ajagba. Hopefully, Turki Alalshikh can get some additional fights that motivate fans to want to purchase the event. Canelo’s fight against Scull isn’t a big enough attraction to attract fans to buy the PPV event.

“First is May, and I don’t see any other fighter there,” said Canelo Alvarez to HOT 97 about who he plans on fighting after his May 3rd fight against William Scull. “So, I’m focused 100% on William Scull because he’s a good fighter, he’s a champion for a reason, and I need to beat him first to see other fights.

“My focus is on him 100%, and then we’ll see. I’m here for another promotion for a fight, and I’m excited for what’s coming. My whole career was here in America, and now I’m going to experience something different and motivate myself because it’s something new,” said Canelo about fighting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.