Canelo Alvarez has revealed that he feels capable of boxing until he is 38.
Canelo is the current Unified Super Middleweight Champion, making one of the biggest names in the sport. He is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Edgar Berlanga, as he retained his Unified Super Middleweight Title. He has been linked with a fight against the IBF Super Middleweight Champion William Scull. A victory over him would make Canelo undisputed at 168 pounds again. He is a four-weight world champion, having only lost twice in his career against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Dmitry Bivol. According to reports, he will take on Terence Crawford in a Mexican Independence Weekend bout.
But Canelo is expected to fight once before this. Canelo is currently 34 years old. There is a perception that he has shown a reluctance to face the biggest names of late. His continual insistence on not fighting David Benavidez has raised a few eyebrows. Canelo demanded $150-$200 million to make that fight. The perception was that he was pricing himself out to avoid the narrative that he was ducking. Talks over a Bivol rematch also broke down. Canelo wanted to have the rematch at 175 pounds, the same weight class where he lost. Meanwhile, Bivol wanted it at 168 to fight for Canelo’s then-undisputed title.
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Outside of the Crawford fight, those are the biggest bouts out there available for him. And if he does retire at 38, there is plenty of time for him to take those bouts. There is nothing to indicate that Canelo is on a massive decline, even if he is not in his peak. There is every reason for Canelo to continue fighting. His bout against Berlanga showed that he is still capable of bringing in a huge amount of money without facing the top names.
The Berlanga fight sold 650,000 PPVs while bringing in a live gate of $17 million. Canelo now has a better relationship with the Saudis, meaning that he could very well fight on a Riyadh Season show in the United States. Equally, there is a narrative there for him to fight in Saudi Arabia. Either one of those options will earn Canelo a big payday. Based on his following comments, he has no plans to retire very soon.
“I don’t know, yeah, I’m getting closer to [retirement] obviously. But I’m feeling great, I feel better than ever. But maybe at 38? Yeah I think 38 would be the perfect time to start thinking about that. I have had difficult fights, and ones I didn’t need in them moments. [And] I take risks my whole career. I really love the challenges and what I do, and I try to show people how good I am. I love to go up and down in weight, I never look at my record and say ‘I did this.’ My trainer always says about it and he always shows me the things I’ve done, all the world champions [I’ve fought] and it’s very impressive,” Canelo said
