By Sean Jones: Errol Spence Jr says he still views Canelo Alvarez as the ‘Face of Boxing” despite his recent three consecutive performances and the emergence of Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis as the new money fighter in the sport.
Spence bases his view of the former four-division world champion Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) as still being the Face of Boxing based on him being the biggest money maker, saying that he thinks he can pull in $30M to $40M fighting obscure opposition.
If Spence’s belief is correct, that might explain why Canelo is in no hurry to fight David Benavidez or avenge his loss to Dmitry Bivol. Why should the 33-year-old Canelo fight those guys when he can make tons of cash fighting lesser guys like John Ryder and Edgar Berlanga and aging fighters like 41-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin?
“Canelo is number one for me. For me, it’s all about how much you make,” said Errol Spence Jr to Million Dollaz Worth of Game. “He is a cash cow. He can fight Johnny from Walmart and make 30-40 million dollars like it’s nothing.”
When one of these social media influencers starts pulling in more money than boxers for their boxing matches, Spence can call that person the Face of Boxing as well.
That’s the whole problem with naming someone as the face of the sport based on how much money they make rather than what they’re achieving.
Being the guy that makes the most money doesn’t mean you’re the best, and that’s the whole problem. Canelo is a fighter that takes advantage of having a huge fan base who no longer shows the willingness to fight the best.
Canelo holds all the belts at 168 but hasn’t shown any desire to defend them against Benavidez or David Morrell Jr. He’s cherry-picking his opponents, steering clear of the talented guys and choosing softer targets.
Recently, Canelo tried to fight 39-year-old Badou Jack for his WBC cruiserweight title at catchweight of 180 lbs. The weight class has a limit of 200 lbs.
Canelo is now looking to fight Jermall Charlo, an inactive middleweight champion who hasn’t fought in two years and looked awful in his last fight against Juan Macias Montiel. That fight is another example of Canelo’s continued cherry-picking and avoidance of fighting the best.
For Canelo to stay on top as the true Face of the sport, he needs to fight these guys:
- Dmitry Bivol
- David Benavidez
- David Morrell
- Artur Beterbiev
- Jermell Charlo
- Tim Tszyu
- Demetrius Andrade