William Scull has a theory that would even put a smile on Chris Mannix’s face.

The IBF super middleweight titlist didn’t give a second thought to not being included among the list of suggested opponents for Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez’s four-fight pact with Riyadh Season. Mexico’s Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KOs) will make his debut on that circuit on May 3 in Riyadh, but doesn’t yet have a challenger for his RING, WBC, WBA and WBO super middleweight championship defense.

Former two-division titlist Jermall Charlo (33-0, 22 KOs) and France’s Bruno Surace (26-0-2, 5 KOs) were teased as the leading candidates. Neither make much sense to—or as much sense as—the super middleweight division’s lone other title claimant.

“I am preparing for May 3,” Scull told The Ring. “I am the other world champion at 168 pounds. There is no other opponent than William Scull.”

Scull (23-0, 9 KOs) is The Ring’s No. 5 super middleweight contender. What he’s not, for the moment, was among the six named fighters as part of Turki Alalshikh’s vision for Alvarez’s next two years under their newly formed partnership.

With a win in May, Alvarez will next face four-division titlist Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs, on Sept. 13 in Las Vegas. Crawford, The Ring’s No. 3 pound-for-pound fighter and No. 1 junior middleweight, would move up two weight divisions for a dream fight and a shot at becoming a four-division Ring champion.

Crawford previously held undisputed championship status at 140- and 147-pounds. Alvarez was the undisputed super middleweight king until he was forced to relinquish his IBF title for refusal to honor his mandatory title defense against Scull, a Cuban export based in Germany.

The IBF belt was then claimed by Scull in a twelve-round, unanimous decision win over Vladimir Shishkin (16-1, 10 KOs) last Oct. 19 in Falkansee, Germany.

Scull is currently in the voluntary phase of his title reign and was previously teased as a candidate to next face Alvarez. However, that was at a time when it was believed that the Mexican icon would headline a Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on Prime Pay-Per-View event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Talks have since stalled when Alvarez shifted his attention to a novelty fight against social media influencer and aspiring cruiserweight Jake Paul (11-1, 7 KOs). As previously reported by The Ring, the two sides were on the verge of finalizing a deal before Alvarez and Alalshikh struck a lucrative deal at the eleventh-hour.

The wild change in direction not only places Scull back in the mix but strangely leaves him as the most desirable option given the current offered names.

Charlo has not fought in more than a year, and even the brother’s keeper angle isn’t much of a selling point. Alvarez’s Sept. 2023 unanimous decision win over Jermell Charlo—Jermall’s twin who came up from junior middleweight—was a dull and largely uncompetitive affair.

Surace is a career middleweight with one notable win, his massive upset of Jaime Munguia last Dec. 14 in a fight where he was badly losing…until he wasn’t.

There was a point where an Alvarez-Scull PBC on Prime PPV seemed like a tough sell, even with the pitch of Alvarez becoming a two-time undisputed champ at the weight.

The appeal for Riyadh Season, however, would be to deliver to Crawford the rare possibility of the chance to become a fully unified world champion at a third weight division.

“It is clear that it is more interesting [than Alvarez versus Charlo or Surace],” insisted Scull. “More, that I have the other belt [at super middleweight]. I am the other champion of the world.”