Most everyone in the small Mexican city where I’ve lived for the past 21 years knows what I do for a living. So, boxing often becomes the topic of casual conversation with the locals.
“Canelo...He’s not fighting anybody,” Jorge, the guy who sells tacos de carnitas down the street from my house, recently told me. “They’re not putting him against anyone who can beat him. I didn’t even watch his last fight.”
“I didn’t watch that fight,” said Miguel Angel, my veterinarian, referring to Alvarez’s recent thrashing of Avni Yildirim. “What’s the point of watching him when they don’t put him against anyone good?”
“Pure propaganda,” Lalo, the taxista, told me in his cab. “Canelo is all publicity, all hype. All they do is give him easy fights.”
I could go on and on. Where the vibe was once mostly positive regarding Alvarez a few years back, there’s, literally, nothing but pessimism and dismissal now.
While all of this is just coming from my own personal experiences, there seems to be a noticeable anti-Canelo shift in Mexican public opinion overall. Major media outlets have begun to post nothing but positive fluff pieces on the 30-year-old from Jalisco while fans grumble and gripe in the comment sections and on social media.
Oddly enough, though, as Mexican fight fans seem to be distancing themselves from the proud Mexican fighter, the world, in general, seems more and more willing to embrace his greatness.
On the surface, it’s not all that difficult to see why Mexican fight fans could become disillusioned with Alvarez.
Despite the red hair and fair skin that separates him, physically, from most of the population, the real disenfranchisement may come from the fighting style he employs. Unlike most historically beloved Mexican battlers, Canelo doesn’t barrel in, accepting incoming flak and overcoming it to break down opponents. His approach is more nuanced and, while his end game is to devastate opposition, his skills have increasingly kept him away from sustaining any real punishment. To many, because he often sports such an edge in skill level, it almost comes off as if he were a bully operating at an unfair advantage. And the Mexican people-- who’ve lived, historically, as a conquered people dominated by richer, more powerful nations-- do not take kindly to bullying. They adore the gritty underdog who survives a beating to come back and claim righteous victory. Canelo is never the underdog in the ring these days and has never had to come back from a beating to claim righteous victory.
Alvarez’s cool demeanor, which often comes off as aloof and uncaring, also does not help him in a nation where being a “man of the people” is so extremely important.
When it comes to his falling star in Mexico, there’s also the reality that Mexican fight fans are just not all that familiar with the weight classes above welterweight. Actually, the heart and soul of Mexican boxing-- at least as it pertains to fan interest-- falls somewhere in the 118 lb. to 126 lb. range. Only the most hardcore Mexican boxing fans follow the action at the higher weights and, even then, few know more than a handful of names above 147.
Because of this, the names being added to Alvarez’s growing resume simply do not resonate with the average Mexican fan. Proof of this was the universal lament made to me that Callum Smith, who was the consensus no. 1 media ranked super middleweight in the world and a legit world champ when Alvarez dominated him, was an “unknown” and a “nobody.” With the exception of Gennadiy Golovkin and the perpetually dismissable Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Alvarez hasn’t fought anyone with name value to the Mexican fan since Miguel Cotto in 2015. And there’s already grumbling about Alvarez fighting “another nobody” this coming Saturday when he faces WBO super middleweight titlist Billy Joe Saunders. They will say the same if/when he gets by Saunders and faces IBF champ Caleb Plant in a bid to become unified 168 lb. champ.
The shame in all of this is that Alvarez truly is putting together an outstanding body of work and, in the here and now, is halfway through what will be an incredible run of four world title fights in the span of ten months en route to full unification.
Everything about Alvarez’s story is the stuff of Mexican boxing fairy tales. From a bullied poor kid selling paletas on city buses to world champ and international glory. There couldn’t be a more “Mexican” rags-to-riches story. While the fans do watch his fights and he always delivers good-to-great TV ratings, the LOVE and reverence just doesn’t seem to be there in the same way it was for other Mexican greats of their times.
The four-division world champ claims to not be affected by critics and has made several comments about “Mexican style” being more than just slam-bang blind aggression, but that just proves he’s aware of the growing disconnect between him and the fans he so desperately wants to reach.
In business, they say that the customer is always right. In the case of Mexican fans and Canelo, though, the customer is wrong. What Alvarez is doing right now is big-time stuff. The fans need to step up their game and learn to appreciate what they’re seeing. Or, maybe, Mexico’s loss will be the world’s gain.