Canelo: Everybody Want To Fight Me, They Need To Fight Each Other; This Year, I'm Busy

[Ruthless-RKO]

Canelo: Everybody Want To Fight Me, They Need To Fight Each Other; This Year, I'm Busy

Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez does not have any problem serving as the sport’s cash cow.

The time has come, however, for others to start doing their part.

News of Guadalajara’s Alvarez (57-1-2, 39KOs) deciding to next challenge WBA light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol figures to have a ripple effect across the middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight divisions. The matchup kicks off a lucrative deal of at least two fights with Matchroom Boxing and DAZN, having fielded a similar offer from Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) which would have kept him on Showtime Pay-Per-View where he stopped Caleb Plant in the 11th round to become undisputed super middleweight champion last November.

The renewed deal with Matchroom and DAZN will begin May 7 on the sports streaming platform’s PPV arm, when Alvarez faces Bivol (19-0, 11KOs) at a location to be determined. From there, the plan is to return on September 17—in celebration of Mexican Independence Day—and possibly a third fight on the year in December.

Whatever comes of his 2022 campaign, there simply isn’t room for everyone waiting in line for a shot at the pound-for-pound and box office king.

“Everybody want to fight me,” Alvarez told ESNews’ Elie Sekbach. “They have many options too. Why don’t they fight each other? They need to. This year, I’m busy.”

The considered deal with PBC began as a one-off fight in May, where Alvarez would have faced WBC middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22KOs) who would move up to super middleweight for the fight. A counteroffer from PBC—once Matchroom and DAZN upped the ante—would have seen Alvarez face Charlo as well as unbeaten former two-time WBC super middleweight titlist David Benavidez (25-0, 22KOs).

Both fights would have seen Alvarez defend his super middleweight crown. The fight with Bivol will mark the second trip to light heavyweight for the Mexican superstar, who views the move as the first step toward aspirations of becoming undisputed light heavyweight king.

“Whatever option for me, the money is there. It’s a lot of money,” admits Alvarez, already a multimillionaire many times over. “I just want to make history. This time, Bivol offered me [to fight for the] world championship at 175. It’s a good fight. I just want to make history. The money is there already. I care about my legacy.”

Sometime after Alvarez-Bivol is supposed to come the unification bout between lineal/WBC/IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev (17-0, 17KOs) and WBO titlist Joe Smith (28-3, 22KOs). Such a fight would save Alvarez a few steps in having to chase all of the light heavyweight belts, whereas he fought every available super middleweight titlist—Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant—to become the division’s king over a four-fight, eleven-month stretch.

This time around, Alvarez seems to prefer a quicker—though still challenging—path on the road to boxing immortality.

“I’m okay with fighting anybody,” insists Alvarez. “But they need to fight each other. They want to fight me because they want good payday. I know that. They need to fight each other and I fight the winner of all of them.”

[apollo creed]

He's right. I guess Canelo may be referring to Charlo, Benavidez and Andrade.

[Enlightened-One]

Most top-tier world-rated fighters from 160lbs to 175lbs have became risk averse, because they don't want to scupper their chances of facing Canelo.

The weird thing though, is that it's Canelo that is often accused of "ducking" certain fighters, even though most of his rivals have terribly weak resumes in comparison (i.e. Benavidez, Andrade, Charlo, Beterbiev etc.).

Canelo's rivals should fight each other to earn their opportunity to receive a mega-payday.

The Mexican will be 32 years of age soon. And he can't face everyone, so Canelo's rivals need to face each other to eliminate undeserving challengers.

For instance, if someone like Demetrius Andrade continues to face appalling opposition, will Canelo’s legacy be tarnished if he never fights the American?

The obvious answer is no, but Canelo haters will probably argue otherwise.

[NateJR]

I agree 100% with Canelo. The sad part about it is, we will continue to see the same narrative. None of the guys that call Canelo out will fight one another, Canelo will fight another big player and people will say Canelo is ducking who ever he doesn't fight. Nothing will change.

[gilgamesh]

I applaud Canelo saying this, and he needs to actually give the words meaning by only zeroing in on guys that actually bother to try to EARN the fight.

[apollo creed]

Charlo and Benavidez should fight each other in their stable. Andrade should fight Ryder on DAZN.

Canelo is right.

[Bandog]

Charlo refuses to fight Andrade or Benevidez. Only hope is for Benevidez and Andrade to fight, and that's questionable.

[apollo creed]

Charlo refuses to fight Andrade or Benevidez. Only hope is for Benevidez and Andrade to fight, and that's questionable.

If so, I hope Canelo doesn't give no one of these quackers a payday.

[margaret thatcher]

yep canelo is bang on right about this, hopefully these dudes like andrade and benavidez actually fight some top dudes instead of just hoping to get rich off cinny

[The Gratest]

Sounds like Canelo's one of those annoying buggers who leaves your Whatsapp message unread (no double blue tick) even though it shows he's logged in and been on AFTER you've sent it. Really annoying those type of people.

[gregregegg]

Glad he finally said it. 2 years ago he Should of just listed all the top 6 or 7 guys and said I won't fight you unless you beat someone else on this list.

[Bandog]

Benevidez and Andrade are willing to fight each other, but Benevidez's promoter said they would need more $ than Benevidez would get for fighting Canelo because of the risk and Andrade not being a big draw. Benevidez said it was sad that promoters prevent fights that fans want to see from happening.

Charlo? He called out Benevidez at 168, Benevidez accepted, then Charlo said ok how about at 164? Charlo shouldn't even be in the conversation after struggling with Monteil and ducking Andrade.

Ryder would be a good test for either, beating Jacobs, but Jacobs has declined.

[Enlightened-One]

Interesting Tweet:

[Bandog]

If you ever have wondered why Canelo has never fought Andrade, re-watch him vs Floyd and Lara.

He struggles with slick boxers, especially southpaws. He drug his feet to fight Lara, and according to Virgil Hill, Andrade has better over-all skills plus more power in both hands, and is also taller.

Best thing to do with a boxer you can't beat is label them a "horrible" boxer, that brings nothing to the table. We've all seen it before. You can do that when you're king, like Floyd did a time or two.

[margaret thatcher]

saunders is a slick southpaw and he fought and stopped him. plant is a skillful boxer too, and ditto on the result. bivol is another skillful boxer/mover who barely gets touched.. or are these guys not black enough to be slick?

so that's several skilled, slick boxers for Canelo just within the last year, in addition to having beaten Lara and had the balls to take on an p4p atg like floyd. whereas andrade NEVER fights any top guys, whether that's canelo or any of the others

oh, i forgot, he did fight the amazing jason quigley, apparently those types of fights were worth his time

[gregregegg]

If you ever have wondered why Canelo has never fought Andrade, re-watch him vs Floyd and Lara.

He struggles with slick boxers, especially southpaws. He drug his feet to fight Lara, and according to Virgil Hill, Andrade has better over-all skills plus more power in both hands, and is also taller.

Best thing to do with a boxer you can't beat is label them a "horrible" boxer, that brings nothing to the table. We've all seen it before. You can do that when you're king, like Floyd did a time or two.

Yea Canelo is scared of boxers and just wants to slug it out with brawlers like Saunders, plant and bivol....

Noone is no deserving than the 160lb 1 belt
champ who is beating such jugganorts as quiggly...

[apollo creed]

Charlo, Benavidez and Andrade should fight each other in a mini tourney. The winner would be a legit opponent for Canelo.

[Ruthless-RKO]

saunders is a slick southpaw and he fought and stopped him. plant is a skillful boxer too, and ditto on the result. bivol is another skillful boxer/mover who barely gets touched.. or are these guys not black enough to be slick?

so that's several skilled, slick boxers for Canelo just within the last year, in addition to having beaten Lara and had the balls to take on an p4p atg like floyd. whereas andrade NEVER fights any top guys, whether that's canelo or any of the others

oh, i forgot, he did fight the amazing jason quigley, apparently those types of fights were worth his time

Mate I agree with everything you said.. but you don’t need balls to fight Mayweather do you?

A lot of boxers would fight him even if they’re injured just to earn that pay check.

[margaret thatcher]

fighting him at 22 was an ambitious move. no marinating or none of that sh!t. dudes play the 'he's just a baby!' card these days when guys are like 26-27

one of the many slick boxers canelo has fought . if only guys like andrade or benavidez had the same ambition to fight top opponents

[Perseus]

I don't know if I like the idea of the current "cash cow" dictating who the other boxers should be fighting but apparently that is the only way some of them will face a decent opponent.

[Ruthless-RKO]

I don't know if I like the idea of the current "cash cow" dictating who the other boxers should be fighting but apparently that is the only way some of them will face a decent opponent.

Understandable.

But like he said.. he’s busy.

These guys are depriving boxing fans of great matchups.

It’s the fans that pay their purses..

[Bandog]

fighting him at 22 was an ambitious move. no marinating or none of that sh!t. dudes play the 'he's just a baby!' card these days when guys are like 26-27

one of the many slick boxers canelo has fought . if only guys like andrade or benavidez had the same ambition to fight top opponents

Canelo was 23, and already had 40 professional fights. So yes, you are also playing the baby card. Mayweather was past his prime at 36, and totally schooled Canelo. As Canelo's stock rises, Mayweather's will always be higher.

If you look at slick boxers vs Canelo, he struggles a lot vs them, especially south paws. He literally had to almost drug in the ring vs Lara, and if you are honest with yourself, he didn't win that. Credit to Canelo though, even though getting outboxed by Khan, Trout, Saunders, etc, he got the win. Floyd and Lara made him look like he hadn't even boxed before.

Canelo has 5 or 6 guys so far below Andrade's level it isn't even funny. Him calling Andrade a horrible, horrible fighter is only pathetic to people that know boxing.

[margaret thatcher]

LOL

he had just turned 23 and took the chance to fight one of the best ever, an absolute f@cking fantastic boxer in floyd. andraade is 34 (close to floyd's age vs canelo lmao...built in excuse for andrade losing if he ever gets that fight) and hasnt fought sh!t. same goes for benavidez, haney, ennis, who despite being called young are already older than canelo was back then. 'i fight anyone' king kong is 43 and has never fought at that level either

ambitious move for sure, way more ambitious than anything done by your ball bois

saunders, plant, bivol.......all skillful style boxers too with that unbeaten record you love so much. why don't they count as 'slick'? not black enough or something LOL?

[apollo creed]

If Canelo beats all the champs at 175 he is an ATG!

Bivol and Beterbiev-Smith fight winner would be some serious victories for Canelo.

[Lackeos]

They need to fight each other and I fight the winner of all of them

The problem with this is that only the winner of it all gets the payday. If you're 50/50 to lose and get knocked out of the sweepstakes, then it's better to wait your turn and get the nearly guaranteed eventual payday. There is a way around that that I don't think anyone in the sport understands. You could book a formal tournament or a formal eliminator in which the guy who gets the Alvarez payday is contractually required to kick back some of his purse to the guy who didn't get to fight Alvarez.

As an example, let's say there's a four-man tournament between Alvarez - Bivol and Beterbiev - Smith. If each of Alvarez's opponents gets a $5 million payday, then you could write-up a contract where the two guys that fight Alvarez get $4 million and the guy who doesn't fight Alvarez gets $1 million from each of their purses.

Another example, but this time not framed as a tournament. Let's say that Alvarez plans to fight Bivol now, and then the winner of Beterbiev - Callum Smith, and then the winner of Joe Smith - Gilberto Ramirez, and then the winner of Benavidez - Charlo. So you can write-up a contract that the loser of Beterbiev - Callum gets $1 million from the purse of the winner when he fights Alvarez. And then do the same thing where the loser of Joe - Ramirez gets $1 million from the purse of the winner when he fights Alvarez, and so on.

If you do it this way, then just by virtue of entering a tournament with Alvarez or entering an eliminator to fight Alvarez, you're already guaranteed to get paid, whether you win or not. It's a win-win for everybody, and a big win for Alvarez himself, because it produces higher-rated opponents to feed his resume, his drawing power, his legacy, etc. Just like, if Haye and Povetkin had fought each other and the winner fought Wlad, then the winner's scalp would've been a much bigger high point on his resume. In Alvarez's case, beating Bivol and beating Beterbiev individually (probably neither being top 10 p4p) doesn't give him as significant of a scalp as if Bivol and Beterbiev fought each other, and the winner (probably top 10 p4p) fought Alvarez. At this point in Alvarez's career, opponents who aren't of Kovalev and Golovkin caliber aren't adding anything to his legacy or drawing power. If you aren't a top 4 scalp, then you're literally adding nothing. The only downside to this approach is if, for some reason, the winner of an eliminator chooses not to fight Alvarez (because of injury or whatever), then it screws everything up and no one gets paid. So you need a plan B for that.