Canelo Alvarez will reportedly be making $35 million+ while his opponent Jaime Munguia is expected to make a cool $10M for tonight’s clash at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Easy Money for Canelo
That’s a good chunk of change for Canelo (60-2-2, 39 KOs) to be making for what many fans view as a relatively safe fight for the 33-year-old superstar against Munguia (43-0, 34 KOs).
Munguia, 27, will be fighting for just the fourth time since moving up to 168 in 2022, and he’s not been tested in this weight class.
I guess if Golden Boy had put Munguia in against meaningful opposition, he wouldn’t be here tonight. He would be food for David Benavidez and David Morrell.
Munguia’s Untested Super Middleweight Run
His three fights at super middleweight have been against these fighters:
– John Ryder
– Sergiy Derevyanchenko
– Jimmy Kelly
It would have been a bigger fight if Munguia had proven himself by fighting some of these guys before facing Canelo: David Morrell Jr., David Benavidez, Diego Pacheco, Caleb Plant, Christian Mbilli, and Jermall Charlo.
Boxing’s Business: Inflated Records and Cash-Outs
The fact that Munguia hasn’t fought any of those fighters puts him in the same class as Edgar Berlanga, a fighter with a weak resume, inflated ranking, and completely unproven. Welcome to boxing. That’s how it’s done in this era. Promoters protect their fighters with careful matchmaking to create shiny records before lining them up for cash-out fights that they have no chance of winning.
Canelo has resisted pressure from boxing fans and the media to take on the more dangerous David Benavidez, which would earn him more money but would entail more risk.
Alvarez’s argument for not taking the more dangerous match against Benavidez is the extra dough wouldn’t be a big enough boost to justify the risk. That is one of the reasons why Canelo is asking for $150-200 million to fight Benavidez because then it would be worth it.
Canelo is expected to fight Edgar Berlanga next in September, and that guy is arguably a weaker version of Munguia. As I pointed out, Berlanga has been brought along in the same way as Munguia in terms of match-making against soft opposition to create a glittering 22-0 record, but with no substance.