Canelo Faces Real Risk by Staying Too Long as Boxing Gets Younger

Andre Berto isn’t breaking news when he talks about the danger of staying too long in boxing. He’s pointing at something the sport has seen over and over again, and he’s using Canelo Alvarez as the latest example.

Canelo’s career, taken as a whole, is already settled. Multiple divisions. Major wins. A decade-plus run at the top. Nothing that happens next is required to justify his place in boxing history. That is the core of Berto’s point. At this stage, everything left on Canelo’s calendar is optional. Which means the risks are real, and the upside is limited.

The warning signs aren’t theoretical anymore. Last September, Canelo was beaten cleanly by Terence Crawford, a 38-year-old who jumped three weight classes to take the fight. Crawford didn’t need to look like a dominant super middleweight to win. He didn’t overwhelm Canelo physically. He didn’t need sustained pressure or constant exchanges. He simply did enough, round after round, to show that Canelo could be controlled and outthought at this stage of his career.

That loss landed in front of a massive Netflix audience. Boxing history isn’t only written in record books. It’s written in memory. For a lot of younger fans, that was their clearest look at Canelo in a big moment. What they saw was a star who couldn’t flip the fight late and couldn’t impose himself the way he once did.

Berto’s concern is what happens next if Canelo keeps going.

The names that follow Crawford aren’t veteran tacticians looking to steal rounds. They’re younger, stronger fighters who operate with a completely different intent. Someone like Osleys Iglesias isn’t coming in to box carefully. Christian Mbilli isn’t showing up to win a chess match. Those fighters close distance. They throw in volume. They push pace. They test durability.

That changes the risk profile entirely.

Against Crawford, the worst outcome was a decision loss that chipped at Canelo’s aura. Against the top super middleweights he’s avoided for years, the danger is physical. Those are fights where the concern isn’t just losing rounds. It’s getting hurt. It’s getting stopped. And once that door opens, it rarely closes cleanly.

Berto explained it bluntly in a recent discussion on InsideRingShow. Canelo is already an eleven-time world champion across four weight classes. The Hall of Fame is automatic. None of that is in question. But legacy isn’t only about what you win. It’s about how you leave.

That’s where the comparisons creep in.

Roy Jones Jr. is the obvious reference point, and it’s not a comfortable one. Jones was untouchable at his peak. A generation-defining talent. But for many fans, especially younger ones, that isn’t the image that sticks. They remember the knockouts. They remember the late-career damage. That doesn’t erase what he was, but it reshapes how he’s discussed.

Max Kellerman summed it up simply in the same conversation. Damage is what people remember. Berto agreed. So did Mike Coppinger, who pointed out how a whole generation only saw Jones at the end, getting stopped repeatedly. The optics stuck. The highlights didn’t favor his greatness.

That’s the fork in the road Canelo is standing at now.

There’s a version of the next few years where he takes selective fights, stays competitive, and exits on his own terms. There’s another version where the matchmaking tightens, the opponents get younger and more aggressive, and the losses stop being tidy. Once stoppages enter the picture, everything shifts. Public perception hardens quickly in boxing.

Kellerman added one more layer to it. Even diminished, Canelo is still good enough to compete at a high level. That’s true, and it’s what makes the decision harder. He’s not washed. He’s not embarrassing himself in the ring. But being good enough to compete isn’t the same as being protected from consequence.

At this point, Canelo isn’t chasing validation. He’s deciding how much of himself he’s willing to give back to the sport. Staying too long doesn’t erase his accomplishments, but it can change the final chapters in ways that are hard to undo.

Berto’s message wasn’t dramatic. It was practical. Canelo has already earned everything. The only real danger left is overstaying, letting the sport take more than it needs to, and leaving fans with images that don’t match the fighter he once was.