By: Sean Crose
“For three days I negotiated with those a–holes so that they would let him go.”
During a recent interview for In Depth with Graham Bensinger, Canelo Alvarez, perhaps the biggest star in boxing, speaks the following words regarding the previously unknown kidnapping of his brother “Three days,” he ads. “And in addition I had to fight that Saturday, and a thousand interviews and everything and no one ever knew anything about this” The experience has brought about a philosophical side of the 55-1-2 fighter. “They see me up there and they say, ‘Wow, it’s very easy.’ But nothing is easy in this life. Everything is difficult….” To make matters worse, Canelo makes it clear to Bensinger that he no longer feels entirely safe in Mexico. In fact, he says he didn’t even ask the police to help return his brother “because maybe they were involved in that situation.”
“I have security here,” he tells Bensinger, “because of people who can be greedy, those who steal at stop lights. There’s a lot of insecurity, too much insecurity. This is why I’m not here in Mexico much anymore, because it’s not safe. Worse still for me and for my family… And the government is not concerned about this. They’re concerned about other things.” The interview with Bensinger is nothing if not eye opening, with Canelo, who is famously private, opening up on a wide array of subjects.
Of getting the Covid-19 virus, he says he“started first with no sense of smell or taste.” Soon enough, however, Canelo found himself quarantined. “I got tested and I had to be 15 days in isolation, because my wife had it too. But I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t really feel anything. I had no other symptoms except what I said: no taste or smell. But I got COVID, and after I got well, I did the test again. I went to San Diego and trained for only one month.”
Canelo also has some things to say about former promoter Oscar De La Hoya and his most famous opponent, Floyd Mayweather. “He’d have nothing to do with me,” he says of Mayweather regarding the question of what would happen if the two men faced off at the peak of their abilities. “If we were both at our prime – our best prime – he wouldn’t have anything to do with me. Nothing… I would knock him out.” As for Golden Boy Promotions, Canelo has some interesting comments.
“Look,” he says, “I don’t like to talk much about people, but I’ve been a very loyal person, always. And I was very loyal, always with Golden Boy.” Yet it’s clear Canelo now feels certain things are worth speaking of. “He doesn’t do anything in Golden Boy,” he says of De La Hoya. “He’s worried about drinking, and being involved in other things… The decisions are made by other people. When Richard Schaefer left Golden Boy, he took all the boxers… And he also wanted to take me – and I was the only boxer that stayed with Golden Boy, because I’m a loyal man. But then, later I understood why everyone had gone and why Richard Schaefer left. Because those who are in Golden Boy, they are only looking after their own benefit, not the boxer’s benefit.”