By Miguel Rivera

The president of the World Boxing Council, Mauricio Sulaiman, has revealed at the ongoing WBC convention in Kiev, that middleweight world champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KOs) will be allowed to make a voluntary defense if he returns to the ring in December.

Canelo is looking at the possibility of fighting on December 15th.

Canelo captured the WBC, WBA middleweight titles last month, after winning a twelve round majority decision over Gennady Golovkin at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

But one of the big issues hanging in the background, is the obligation of a mandatory defense against WBC interim-middleweight champion Jermall Charlo.

Charlo expected to face the winner of the Canelo vs. Golovkin rematch.

"You have to review mandatory classifications and fights of the 17 divisions, and there are some very complicated issues... one of them is the future of Canelo as middleweight champion. Jermall Charlo who is interim champion, has the right to face the official champion. We understand that maybe [Canelo] will make a defense in December and we will be addressing that particular issue," Sulaimán said to ESPN Deportes.

The complications, Sulaiman said, would occur because he is waiting for an immediate rematch request from Golovkin - who will demand a third fight with the Mexican superstar.

"We know that GGG is requesting a rematch, it has not been formalized but [his intention to make that request] has already been announced - but there is the issue of Charlo and the theme of the champion who will make a voluntary defense (in December) before making the mandatory (in 2019) depending on the times that are given for that fight," said Sulaiman.

Another interesting issue in making a Canelo-Golovkin trilogy, is the recent decision by HBO to drop live boxing from the network's programming.

Canelo and Golovkin were both HBO fighters - and now find themselves as network free agents. And there is no guarantee that both boxers end up on the same network.