Promoter Bob Arum made a good point this month that Canelo Alvarez has become a “businessman” focused on collecting paychecks rather than choosing entertaining fights for the fans to watch on PPV.
Avoiding Benavidez’s Challenge
The Mexican star has not given fans their money’s worth in recent years with his money-driven approach. He avoided the one fighter that fans asked him to fight, David Benavidez, and sold them secondary matches instead at a premium price.
Canelo’s selection of opponents and avoidance of talented contenders have hurt his popularity. Some fans compare what he’s doing to Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s performance in his last few years in the sport.
‘Money’ Mayweather cherry-picked many fighters who had a shot at beating him. However, he took occasional risks against Manny Pacquiao after making him wait six years and against Miguel Cotto. Canelo isn’t doing any of that. He’s virtually stopped taking risks after his loss to Dmitry Bivol in 2022 and has been carefully selecting his opposition ever since.
“Bob Arum said this week that he looks at Canelo a lot differently than he once did. Canelo was an elite pound-for-pound talent, a take-on-all-comers type of guy. Now, Bob says he looks at Canelo as more of a businessman,” said Chris Mannix on his YouTube channel. “A lot of people have been saying stuff similar since Canelo decided not to take a fight against David Benavidez. Is Canelo a boxer or a businessman?”
That was a bad career move for Alvarez not to take the fight with ‘The Mexican Monster’ Benavidez because it made him look cowardly, weak, and protective of his resume. The last thing a fighter can afford to do is be seen as ducking an elite-level threat chasing them and calling them out 24/7.
Arum obviously changed his view of Canelo after seeing him avoid Benavidez for years, and take easier fights. Alvarez was still in his early 30s when Benavidez began calling him out four years ago.
The “Retirement Tour” Strategy
“I would agree with Bob Arum. I think he’s more of a businessman than a boxer, but that’s what happens when you’re a PPV star,” said Sergio Mora. “Whenever you’re that long in the tooth like Canelo, he’s 35 years old with well over 65 fights as a professional, I think he earned the right to pick and choose whoever he wants at this stage of his career. And if selected on the right date, I think fans are going to support him. Fans are always going to support PPV stars.”
What Arum is talking about is Canelo on a long retirement tour, charging his fanbase to see him take non-risky fights. He’s lost the image he once had when he occasionally fought the best. Even when Canelo was in his prime, he was still calculated with his choices. He chose to fight many of the top fighters when they were washed up and not a threat.
The Older Fighters Canelo Fought
– Shane Mosley
– Miguel Cotto
– Gennadiy Golovkin
– Sergey Kovalev
– Floyd Mayweather Jr
– Carlos Baldomir
“I think earned is the operative word there. Fighters that have accomplished what Canelo has accomplished have earned the right to be selective with their opponents,” said Mannix. “It’s not an original career strategy [to cherry pick]. Taking low-risk, high-reward type of fights is exactly what Canelo is doing. Canelo, go back to the early years. He fought Mayweather. He fought Erislandy Lara when Lara was a killer, or at least a tough fighter at that point.”
Just because Canelo fought some top fighters earlier in his career doesn’t mean he’s earned the right to be a businessman and sell his fights against soft touches on PPV. Asking boxing fans to pay to watch Alvarez fight tomato cans or smaller, older, frail fighters like 38-year-old welterweight Terence Crawford isn’t fair. That’s a businessman’s approach. Canelo is NOT a boxer at this point. He’s picking exclusively winnable fights against beatable guys like William Scull, Crawford, Edgar Berlanga, and Jaime Munguia. Those should be free fights as part of the DAZN subscription, not PPV.
Canelo’s P4P Debate
“He fought Gennadiy Golovkin when he was close to his very best [Note: GGG was 35 when Canelo finally agreed to fight him. He’d been asking for a fight for three years since he was 32]. He moved up and fought Bivol, and he was a pound-for-pound type of guy,” said Mannix.
It wasn’t until Golovkin was in his mid-30s that Canelo finally agreed to fight him, and even then, it came after his poor performance against Kell Brook. GGG had been chasing Canelo for three years since he was 32 with no luck.
“The question is, when these pound-for-pound lists come out, should we still have Canelo Alvarez on it? After his performance against William Scull, is Canelo still a pound-for-pound top fighter? I still think I’d make him the #1 guy in the 168-lb division, but is he in your mind a guy that should still be ranked in the top 10 [pound-for-pound]?”
Canelo shouldn’t be on the top 10 pound-for-pound list for these reasons:
- Avoidance of top fighters: Sorry, Terence Crawford doesn’t count
- Lackluster performances since 2022
- Skills drop off: Deteriorating in skills
- Zero knockouts since 2021
“Absolutely. Once you’re a PPV star, it gives you seniority, and just seniority keeps you in the top 10,” said Mora.
Sergio is talking about popularity, not performance. The criteria for including fighters shouldn’t be based on their popularity but on how well they perform compared to other fighters. If we’re talking about the pound-for-pound list being a popularity contest, the name should be changed to ‘ The Most Popular Fighter List ‘.
Last Updated on 05/25/2025
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