Canelo Alvarez Reveals He Received £15 For His Fight. Now He Is Boxing’s Most Affluent Fighter
Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez made his professional debut at the age of 15, pocketing just £15 for that fight. (20.22 US Dollars) Now the Mexican superstar is regarded as boxing’s most bankable star with fights against Floyd Mayweather, and Gennady Golovkin under his belt.
‘Canelo’ holds a dazzling record of 56 wins, one loss, and two draws in his professional career and will be looking to take one step further when he makes his return to the ring this Saturday against Caleb Plant, with intentions of becoming the undisputed super-middleweight champion of the world.
Alvarez, 31, was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He was the youngest of eight siblings with seven of them brothers, and all of them went on to pursue boxing as a profession. So, from a very early age Alvarez was clear in his mind what he wanted to achieve in his life. He now stands as one of the pay-per-view kings of the sport.
In late 2018, Alvarez signed a contract extension with longtime promoter Golden Boy – run by Oscar De La Hoya, for a healthy $365 million deal, with sports streaming service Dazn bragging the right to premier his 11 fights in the next five years. This deal was the highest paid deal ever for any pro athlete that time, but it didn’t come to fruition as ‘Canelo’ withdrew himself from the agreement after just 3 fights, leaving a massive $280 million dollars on the table.
Despite that, ‘Canelo’ is still boxing’s PPV pace setters, but things weren’t the same when he fought Abraham Gonzalez in 2005 for his professional fight earning a mere £15.
“I won 800 Pesos for that fight, but I had to pay half of that on tickets because my family is so big.” Canleo said when ask about his first paycheck. “But I love boxing, so I have never done it for the money and back then I worked too.
“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.”
It was his love of boxing that has made him the star he is now. And Canelo’s pay-per-view numbers certainly proved that he is one of the boxing’s modern-day greats. His fight with former multiple-time world champion, Miguel Cotto collected 900,000 PPV buys, generating $58 million remuneration. But it was his bout with Julio César Chávez Jr that touched the 1 million PPV buys mark for the first time, that proved him to be a bankable star . The fight went on to generate $80 million.
His two battles with Gennady Golovkin also proved beneficial for Canelo financially, generating $120 million and $130 million respectively. But the clash with Floyd Mayweather is the most lucrative bout Canelo has ever been involved in. The Mayweather-Canelo fight stands at the fifth spot in the list of the highest-bought pay-per-view in boxing history, with total PPV buys of 2.2 million and generating around $150 million purse.
Canelo is not only stockpiling the money inside the boxing ring, but his real estate investments also bring him a lot of wealth outside the battlefront. According to Mexican superstar, he earns $20 million from this capital, but Forbes has claimed that Boxing P4P king has already made $34 million by June this year alone.
Canelo is all set to unify Super Middleweight division this weekend when he faces Caleb Plant for IBF, WBA (Super), WBC, WBO, and The Ring super middleweight titles.