Tony Bellew victim Ilunga Makabu to meet Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez for world cruiserweight title

Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez has been sanctioned to fight Ilunga Makabu for the world cruiserweight title - the Congolese southpaw Tony Bellew knocked out at Goodison Park to become world champion in 2016.

Makabu reclaimed the WBC belt in January last year with a unanimous decision over Poland's Michael Cieslak and defended the belt last December stopping Nigeria's Olanrewaju Durodola.

But now Canelo will jump two weight divisions to face Makabu next year in an audacious bid to become a five-weight world champion.

The Mexican superstar will challenge the WBC cruiserweight champion in May or June after the governing body approved his request to move up two divisions into a new weight category.

"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."

Earlier this month, Canelo became the first fighter in history to unify the super-middleweight division, beating three previously undefeated champions in Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant in 11 months to collect all four world titles at 168lbs.

His first world title was at super-welterweight before establishing himself as one of the planet’s most feared fighters in the middleweight division after memorable wins over the likes of Miguel Cotto, Daniel Jacobs and Gennady Golovkin.

In 2019, he stepped up the light-heavyweight division, knocking out Sergey Kovalev to win the WBO title.

Canelo vacated the belt soon after to embark on his mission of unifying the super-middleweight division but will now venture even further up boxing’s weight classes to cruiserweight where the weight limit is 200lbs.

Makabu has 25 knockout victories from his 28 successes - with that defeat by Bellew and a stoppage by Khayeni Hlungwane on his pro debut his only career defeats.