In the wake of Saul Alvarez's loss to Terence Crawford, it's clear that the sun is setting on his Hall-of-Fame career. No matter what you think of Alvarez -- and the opinions are more diverse than you think -- he must be given credit for being the face of the sport post-Mayweather/Pacquiao the past several years.
That doesn't necessarily mean he was the best prizefighter on the planet (although he was certainly elite for a long stretch) but what 'Canelo' represented was perhaps just as important: when he was scheduled to fight, it was an event. The type that you made plans around, and even the most casual of fans would tune in.
He was boxing's flagship fighter.
You could basically count on him headlining a major card on either of the two Mexican holidays in May and September the past decade or so, and at times even fill up a large stadium.
But at age 38 he is much closer to the end of his career than the beginning. So the question is: who's next?
Throughout the years the sport/business of boxing could count on a star or two who would in essence carry the sport, or at least be a recognizable face to the general public. Growing up as a child of the 80's, it was the 'Four Kings' (Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran) whose clashes transcended the game. Then it was Mike Tyson, who was then followed by Oscar De La Hoya, who passed the torch along to Mayweather and 'the Pac Man'. Then we had Alvarez.
There was always a belief that there will always be a line of succession, that inevitably someone would take the mantle and become that guy.
Now, I don't want to be overly cynical (for the time being, I'm just a garden variety cynic) but I wonder if it's even possible to even create the next superstar. I'm not saying that there wont be popular boxers who make millions, but with the current system can you develop the next 'Golden Boy' or 'Money'?
Ring Magazine
When there is a factory assembly line in place that is in good working order, you have some assurances that something will come out of there eventually. But what happens when that factory closes down? The song ''Allentown' from Billy Joel comes to mind. It's certainly a catchy tune, even if it is bleak in its outlook.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHnJp0oyOxs&list=RDBHnJp0oyOxs&start_radio=1
Think about it, Alvarez could be described as the last boxer to be part of the HBO/Showtime ecosystem, where boxers got huge exposure on a regular basis and became at least household names in households that cared about boxing. Nowadays, blue-chip boxers are showcased on streaming platforms and/or on cards that are sometimes featured overseas. Ask yourself this, do you think a boxer played in front of a bigger audience in the 90's and early 2000's on HBO (and to a lesser degree on Showtime) or currently on DAZN?
Beyond that, you had basic cable series on outlets such as USA and Fox Sports that gave a fighters national exposure -- if not millions of dollars. These cards kept the business moving. Currently, for the first time since the mid-40's there is no regular television series that features boxing in America. For decades, before the likes of Leonard and Hearns clashed, they honed their skills on ABC, CBS and NBC as they built rival fan-bases and created interest in their inevitable showdown.
TFN
This is just my opinion, but it seems that boxing loses its relevance in America every subsequent decade. There was a time when fights like Hagler-John Mugabi would have ABC sending out 'Good Morning America' sending out Dolph Lungren as a special correspondent to do features on the fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tes2ed6o99Q
Recently, one of the Showtime channels was re-airing one of the episodes of 'the Kings', the four-part documentary series on the aforementioned quartet, and it struck me how three of the four (Leonard, Hagler and Hearns) all got invitations to the White House and paid a visit to Ronald Reagan. These guys truly were known on Main Street USA.
Ask yourself this, what boxers today merit such an invite?
But back to 'Canelo', you can argue if he's truly one of the greatest Mexican boxers ever, to me, he may not be in the Mt. Rushmore, but he's certainly in the top 10. But what I truly respect about him is that along with the names on his ledger (Mayweather, Erislandy Lara, Austin Trout, Gennadiy Golovkin, Callum Smith, Caleb Plant, Billy Joe Saunders, Sergey Kovalev, Daniel Jacobs, Dmitry Bivol and Crawford) is that he will end his career with right around 70 fights, or more.
Riyadh Season
He has put in the work over time to truly become a known entity. It's my view that it takes at least 30 to 35 fights to truly penetrate into the consciousness of the public, especially as boxing becomes more and more of a niche sport. Since 2010, which is the year that he started to really emerge as a boxer, he's only had one year (2020, during the pandemic) that he fought just once. Every other year he has fought at least twice, and in 2021 he performed three times when he was clearly the sports biggest name.
This may not seem like all that much, but to put this into perspective if you look at the foursome of Gervonta Davis, Teofimo Lopez, Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney, who in the past have been hailed as the future foundation of the sport, three of the four have had three separate years where the fought just once from 2021 to 2025.
Showtime Sports
Haney, who is scheduled to face Brian Norman in November, will fight twice this year. He has been the most consistent of the group. The only year where he didn't fight at least twice was in 2024 after the physically taxing affair versus Garcia, who later tested positive for PED's in the aftermath of that bout and served a year-long suspension. Chances are no one from this current era will end up with even 50 professional bouts under their belt.
So tell me, who takes over for Canelo moving forward?
3KR
This week on 'the 3 Knockdown Rule', Tim Bradley makes his return to talk all things boxing with Mario Lopez and I:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXPaocYhbHo
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