The five-weight world champion, who takes on unbeaten Dmitry Bivol for the WBA light-heavyweight title on Saturday, has his eyes on Oleksandr Usyk’s heavyweight gold
‘Eight hundred pesos,” Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez says quietly as a little smile dances across his freckled face and he remembers how much he earned on his professional debut in October 2005. He was just 15 and that fight purse, which is the equivalent of just under $40, seems endearing compared to the $160m Álvarez is expected to make for the three bouts he has planned this year.
Before we turn to the seemingly unstoppable wealth and fame that now surrounds him as the best boxer in the world, Álvarez breaks down the money he made for stopping Abraham Gonzales in the fourth round of his debut in the Mexican city of Tonalá on the outskirts of Guadalajara. “They actually only paid me half of that,” he says of his 800 pesos. “The other half was in tickets. I gave all the tickets to my family.”