Is Boxing Losing Patience with Canelo Alvarez?

Is the boxing world losing patience with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez?

If the general negativity around Alvarez’s recent ring work and the reported dismal performance of his most recent pay-per-view fight with John Ryder is any indication, then the answer is a resounding "yes." According to online reports from media sources, Alvarez-Ryder generated between 150K and 235K pay-per-view buys, which represents a huge fall for someone who has been the undisputed boxing cash cow since the retirement of Floyd Mayweather.

Alvarez’s allegiance with DAZN, which has dropped the ball in areas of promotion and general outreach, can be blamed for some of the commercial decline in the Canelo brand, but Alvarez’s own matchmaking and ring performances in recent outings are also to blame.

After an outstanding four-fight run that saw him unify all four super middleweight belts in the span of eleven months, Alvarez turned in a sluggish 2022. He suffered a decisive loss to WBA light heavyweight champ Dmitry Bivol in May and then put in a tepid performance in beating Gennadiy Golovkin in their September trilogy fight. And now, in his most recent bout this past May 6, he battered , but was unable to stop a very much overmatched John Ryder while taking way more punishment than he normally would have against such a limited opponent.

Now, with real hungry and young opposition waiting on their shots at 168, Alvarez is looking elsewhere, reportedly to a rematch with Bivol.

"No more excuses," said longtime ‘I want Canelo’ voice, Demetrius Andrade via social media. "Stop running."

"Unless you fight real fighters, don’t you ever think of retiring "cause you would never get the respect from us real fighters. Fight the fights boxing fans actually want to see you fight. Stop running from real fighters."

Most everyone, though, has been clamoring for Alvarez to face the all-action former two-time WBC super middleweight champ David Benavidez.

"I"d rather see him fight Benavidez because, first of all, it"s a Mexican fight," Hall of Fame legend Roy Jones Jr. recently said in an interview with FightHype.com. "It"s two guys whose body compositions are perfect for a great fight. One guy is tall and lanky who throws a lot of punches. The other guy is short and stocky who throws powerful punches. That"s the perfect matchup for a great fight. Why would we not want to see that over a Bivol fight? Because of how lopsided the first fight was, we don"t see him beating Bivol, so why would you not go ahead and fight David?"

The Mexican superstar has not directly addressed why he doesn’t have Benavidez on his agenda, but one reason can be traced back to his comments about not wanting to fight other Mexican boxers. Jones doesn’t buy into that logic.

"If you"re great, you go get your side, the other guy gonna get his side, and y"all battle. That"s what makes competition. That"s what makes stuff fun," Jones said. "You don"t wait until this guy is down and out, then you go and beat him. That don"t mean nothing. You ain"t beat him at his best. It"s only good if you beat a guy at his best. So, it"s like, ‘I don"t fight Mexicans," I kinda get what you"re saying, but for me, personally, I don"t really like that.

"He"s [Benavidez] the next best fighter out there, why would you not? Like I said, you lost to the light heavyweight champ, which is cool. You went up in weight and tried something different and it didn"t work. Okay, well then come back down now and show that you"re still the king of your division and fight the next best available guy in your division…That"s what the real ones are supposed to do."