CANELO ALVAREZ was once a bullied schoolboy forced to fight – but it moulded him into one of boxing’s all-time greats.
The Mexican is the sport’s top earner and faces undefeated Terence Crawford on Saturday in possibly his most blockbuster bout of all.
Canelo Alvarez used to sell ice creams for his dad
He began boxing after being inspired by his brothers
Instgram caneloHe is now the highest-paid boxer with a fleet of supercars[/caption]
GettyCanelo is the undisputed super-middleweight champion[/caption]
But despite the millions in his bank, fleet of supercars in his garage and dozens of world titles on his mantlepiece, it was humble beginnings for Canelo.
He grew up in poverty in the small town of Juanacatlan – in the state of Jalisco – which has a population of just 10,000.
Canelo – one of eight children with six brothers – was raised on his father’s farm and worked in his ice cream parlour as young as six.
“I was very happy selling ice creams and looking for my dream,” he told SunSport in Riyadh after announcing his fight with Crawford.
“I was very happy too and right now being in this situation, my dad and my family keep selling ice cream.
“So I’m very happy to do what I did and what I do right now and I’m just blessed.
“My dad showed me how to work, how to respect work, how to be honest, so that made me the man I am today.”
While Canelo might have grown up living an ordinary and quiet life – he always stuck out.
CANELO VS CRAWFORD: ALL THE DETAILS YOU NEED AHEAD OF THE FIGHT OF THE CENTURY
CANELO VS CRAWFORD: ALL THE DETAILS YOU NEED AHEAD OF THE FIGHT OF THE CENTURY
His freckles and bright ginger hair – which earned him the nickname Canelo, meaning cinnamon in Spanish – caused him to be picked on.
But after one bully took things too far, Canelo hit back, and discovered both his passion and talent for fighting.
“I was playing soccer at that time when that happened. This guy threw a punch and made me cry,” he told Piers Morgan.
“Then I punched him back and that started everything. I remember that punch, it was great.
“I’m the opposite to him, I’m the only red haired with freckles and everyone’s bullying me and I don’t want anyone to tell me bad things about me, so I punched him back.
“I defended myself and you know, it’s part of the life in my situation when you come from nothing.
“It’s part of the life, you need to take care of your life, somehow.”
Canelo quickly took his talent for brawling to the boxing gym – inspired by his older brothers who were all fighters.
And after a brief amateur career, he turned professional in 2005 aged just 15 earning only £30.
But after buying tickets for his family to watch, Canelo was left with only £15, which he was more than happy with.
Canelo was a national amateur champion before turning pro
He considered quitting boxing as he could not afford a car
“I love boxing so I have never done it for the money and back then I worked too,” he said in 2021.
“I was also on my own, I had no kids, I had nothing and I worked so I didn’t need the money. I just wanted to fight, which is what fascinates me.”
But Canelo’s eagerness eventually died down.
His older brother Gonzalo remembers having to convince him not to stop boxing when the tiny paydays proved tough to take.
“There was a moment when he was considering quitting boxing,” Gonzalo said in a DAZN documentary.
“Because, I remember, they paid him almost nothing when he started. Sometimes they would pay him $40 and the rest in tickets for him to sell.
“If he’d sell them he would make a bit of money, if not, that was his problem.
“He wanted to buy a car so he’d say, ‘I’m going to look for a job.’ He was losing his patience.
He made his professional debut aged 15
The Mexican was once making just £30 a fight
He has always been trained by Eddy Reynoso
“So, I told him, ‘Brother, you have something that almost nobody has, you’re a Mexican, redhead and very good at what you’re doing. I believe you’ll be world champion and you will make history.’”
Canelo took the advice and proved his brother right – becoming champ aged 20 – beating Ricky Hatton’s brother Matthew in 2011.
The father-of-four went on to win world titles in FOUR divisions – becoming a top pay-per-view star and boxing’s highest-paid talent.
But it came at a cost, with Alvarez’s fame and fortune creating a target on his back – and not just in the ring.
In 2018, before he faced Rocky Fielding, Canelo said one of his brothers was KIDNAPPED and he had to negotiate his release.
“For three days, I negotiated with those assholes so they would let him go. Three days,” he told Graham Bensinger.
“After I negotiated, I was still thinking, imagine if this had been my daughter, my mother, my father. For me it would’ve been more difficult.
“And on top of that I had to fight on Saturday, and a thousand interviews and everything, no one knew anything.
Canelo was inspired to box by his older brothers
GettyCanelo beat Rocky Fielding in 2018 on the same week his brother was kidnapped[/caption]
“And that’s what I’m getting at, everybody thinks, wow, you know, they see me up there and say, ‘Wow, it’s very easy’.
“But nothing is easy in this life, everything is difficult.”
Sensationally, Canelo knocked out Fielding in three rounds amid the horror kidnapping ordeal.
The boxing legend has also faced scandals of his own.
He tested positive for banned substance clenbuterol – known to increase muscle and strip fat – in 2018 while training to rematch Gennady Golovkin.
He was handed a six-month suspension and blamed the test on eating contaminated beef – with Mexico having a history of tainted meats.
Canelo served his ban before returning to beat Golovkin following their draw in 2017 but still the accusations of cheating persist to this day.
“People who don’t wanna believe, they don’t believe,” Canelo told TalkTV’s Morgan. “Even if it’s true in what I say, the proof is there.
AP:Associated PressGennady Golovkin and Canelo drew in 2017[/caption]
AP:Associated PressCanelo won the 2018 rematch after serving a six-month doping ban[/caption]
“They’re gonna believe what they’re gonna believe and I don’t really care.”
Canelo later beat Golovkin in a trilogy bout in September 2022 – four months after losing to light-heavyweight champ Dmitry Bivol.
It was only his second-ever defeat, following his schooling at the hands of Floyd Mayweather in 2013.
Mayweather was unbeaten at the time and retired with that perfect record intact – that is something 41-0 Crawford also hopes to do.
The unbeaten American has won world titles all the way from the 135lb lightweight division to the 154lb super-welterweight limit
But now Crawford jumps up to super-middleweight to take on undisputed champ Canelo – live on Netflix from the 65,000-seat Las Vegas Raiders Stadium.
It brings two of the pound-for-pound best together for a genuine super-fight that even Canelo – so long in the boxing tooth now – is excited for.
“In my opinion, this is a very special fight because it’s two greats in the last era fighting each other. It’s going to be big,” he said.
“It’s going to be the biggest fight in a long time.”
GettyCanelo facing off with Terence Crawford[/caption] Creator – [#item_custom_dc:creator]
