It’s still possible Canelo Alvarez will fight this year, but it sure isn’t looking very likely.
As fans know, the Mexican superstar last fought in November, when he packed on the pounds to stop light-heavyweight belt-holder Sergey Kovalev to pick up a fourth belt in as many weights.
Then, before this, God-awful pandemic struck and served to screw up plenty of 2020’s boxing schedule (and, of course, also affecting a lot of far more critical global issues). Canelo was to have fought Billy Joe Saunders in May.
Now, with reports (initially coming from Mike Coppinger) telling us Canelo and DAZN are at loggerheads over money, it seems Canelo could sit out the rest of the year.
DAZN wants to pay Canelo “around half” of the usual $35 million they hand over to him per fight. And apparently, Canelo is not happy about this at all and has dug his heels in. And this is a separate issue from the one where DAZN insists Canelo should fight a stellar opponent (so no Avni Yildrim).
So what do the fans think? Is Canelo greedy for refusing to fight for “just” $17 million? Or is the biggest star of the sport entitled to get what he is/was contractually guaranteed?
$17 million per fight equals a heck of a chunk of dough, especially during these (here’s that word again) ‘unprecedented’ times. Plenty of people have lost their jobs and with it their livelihood. It seems quite likely these people will feel very hard-pressed to have any sympathy for a fighter who is turning his nose up at almost $20 million for one night’s work (before taxes and after an 8 to 10-week training camp).
Mexican fighters, warriors, are celebrated for fighting hard, fighting the best, and, perhaps most of all, fighting for their fans. Canelo is filthy rich right now, yet here he is (apparently, maybe he will agree to box for a pay-cut; we must wait and see), seriously thinking about saying no to $17 million, instead of taking zero and at the same time depriving his fans of the chance to seehim fight for something like 15 months or more.
There is still a chance Canelo will fight in November, with BJS and Callum Smith again the frontrunners. Still, Canelo has already missed the big Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day slots he usually fights on.
If no November date comes (and it does look doubtful this side of some fast work by all concerned to make a fight by then), 2020 will go down as Canelo’s idle year. His wasted year.
Canelo hit 30 in July, and he might be at his peak right now. Unfortunately, it’s likely the biggest star in boxing will one day look back on a year in which he allowed precious time to go to waste – as in the precious, peak of his career in terms of all-round ability time he will never, ever get back.
It’s not just the fantastic Terence Crawford who has had a poor and disappointing year here in 2020.