Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez looks set to challenge WBC Cruiserweight world champion Ilunga Makabu as the Mexican boxing superstar bids to win titles in five different weight divisions.
The World Boxing Council approved Alvarez's request to move up two divisions to face Makabu at their annual convention on Tuesday night. The fight is likely to take place in either May or June.
"The WBC has approved unanimously Canelo to fight for the WBC cruiserweight championship of the world," president Mauricio Sulaiman said. "This is a surprise to me but I'm sure he will continue to make history."
Alvarez is widely regarded as boxing's pound-for-pound king, a status that has only been cemented over the past 12 months in which he defeated title holders Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders, and Caleb Plant to become the super-middleweight division's first ever undisputed champion.
Alvarez won his first world title at light-middleweight in 2011, before becoming a two-weight world champion with his first middleweight title in November 2015. It was at middleweight where Alvarez established himself and fought arguably the two defining fights of his career, against Kazakhstan's Gennady Golovkin.
The Mexican, 31, made the step up to light-heavyweight to face Sergey Kovalev in November 2019, knocking out the Russian in the 11th round to take his WBO belt.
Following his 12-month dominance of the super-middleweight division, Alvarez is in line for one of the biggest challenges of his career against Makabu.
Few would argue against Alvarez's superior boxing skills, but the upper weight limit in the cruiserweight division is 200lbs, more than 30lbs heavier than the maximum in the super-middleweight class (168lbs).
Makubu, who will be naturally the bigger man, carries plenty of knockout power and has rebuilt his career impressively after being knocked out by Tony Bellew in their WBC title fight in 2016.
Since then, the Congolese fighter has reeled off nine successive wins and captured the WBC title against Michał Cieslak in January last year. He successfully defended his belt against Olanrewaju Durodola in December.
Alvarez's professional record stands at 57-1-2 (39 KOs), with his only defeat coming against Floyd Mayweather Jr in September 2013.
