Canelo Alvarez’s business manager, Richard Schaefer, says the Mexican star will be a billionaire before his career is over. His net worth is currently estimated at $300 million, and he’s reportedly getting $150 million for his September 13th. That’ll still leave Alvarez a long way away from a billion.
Challenges to Canelo’s Riches
The only way Canelo can hit that mark is by continuing to win, and having the Saudis bankroll his fights for the next three or four years. Canelo would need to take these fights:
– Terence Crawford x 2
– David Benavidez x 2
– Dmitry Bivol
– Artur Beterbiev
– Jaron Ennis
– Chris Eubank Jr.
The problem is, Canelo will likely lose repeatedly to Crawford or Benavidez, and that would end his chances of getting big enough purses for him to hit the billion-dollar mark. Canelo looked washed in his last fight against William Scull last May. The way he performed, he’s going to get beaten by Crawford in their fight on September 13th.
“He’s the smartest businessman in boxing I have ever met. He’s going to break the billion-dollar net worth. I have zero questions about it,” said promoter Richard Schaefer to Fight Hub TV, talking about Canelo Alvarez.
“This is two fighters in their prime,” said Shaefer about Canelo and Terence Crawford. “Canelo still is the best pound-for-pound fighter, there’s no question about it. I’m going to tell you why. He fought all these former world champions. There’s no question today that Canelo Alvarez is the best pound-for-pound fighter.”
Canelo and Crawford are nowhere near the two best fighters in their prime. They’re both on the downsides of their careers. We saw that in both of their recent performances. Canelo looked faded and gun-shy against William Scull on May 3rd. Crawford had lost a lot from his game in his fight against Israil Madrimov on August 3rd.
He’d aged visibly from his previous fight a year earlier against Errol Spence in July 2023. After Crawford’s narrow win against Madrimov, he chose not to take any chances against the other top fighters at 154. He knew better. Schaefer is way off with his belief that Canelo and Crawford are both still in their primes. Canelo definitely isn’t pound-for-pound worthy. He doesn’t belong on the list.
Is Canelo Washed Up?
“I think the pound-for-pound list is the accomplishment of the fighter’s entire body of work up to that day. What has he done? Just having one good fight doesn’t qualify for being on the pound-for-pound list. I think Usyk is right there with Canelo.”
Pound-for-pound lists are supposed to be based on who the best current fighters are, and not exclusively on what they accomplished earlier in their career. Canelo is no longer fighting at a high enough level for him to be pound-for-pound. Whatever he was when he was younger, that’s not him anymore. Canelo is washed up. That’s the reality, and the Ring Magazine should focus on ranking only the best fighters now. How Canelo looked against William Scull, he’d lost to two or three of the top super middleweights.
“Crawford has a few good wins, but when you look at his wins and compare them to Canelo’s wins, we’ve got to be honest. I don’t want to take nothing away from Crawford. He’s a hell of a fighter, but Canelo is in a different league,” said Schaefer.
It’s pretty obvious that Canelo’s career resume is far better than Crawford’s, and one reason for that is his willingness to take risks. Crawford played it safe, staying in his comfort zone, not moving up in weight until late in his career when he was nearing 40. He was lazy about promoting himself by failing to do many interviews and work on social media.
If not for Crawford being one of Turki Alalshikh’s favorite fighters, he’d be out of luck and would have never gotten the Canelo fight. He wouldn’t have gotten the big payday against Israil Madrimov last year either.
