20 little-known facts about Canelo Alvarez

NEW YORK CITY - JUNE 20: Hennessy, the world's best-selling Cognac, presents Lineal and RING Magazine Middleweight World Champion Canelo Alvarez with a custom engraved bottle of Paradis Imperial during the Canelo vs. Golovkin press tour at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Hennessy recently announced its partnership with Canelo who, like Hennessy, has a passion for pushing the limits of potential to Never stop. Never settle. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images for Hennessy) /

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BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – JUNE 28: Manny Pacquiao during the official Pacquiao Vs Horn press conference for WBO World Welterweight Championshipat Suncorp Stadium on June 28, 2017 in Brisbane, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images) /

15. Pacquiao was offered to fight Canelo in Mexico in 2011

This one is more of a rumor than a fact, but it’s still out there on the Internet. 2011 was the beginning of Canelo’s rise to a championship fighter. He began the year by winning the WBC super welterweight title against Matthew Hatton, the first major belt of his career, and defended it all the way up until his fight against Floyd Mayweather.

But two years before he fought “TBE”, he had the chance to fight the second greatest boxer of this generation, Manny Pacquiao, on home soil. Carlos Slim, whose net worth of $74 billion made him the richest man in the world, offered Pacquiao to fight in Mexico for $65 million against an opponent of his choice, which was widely rumored to be Canelo. This also coincided with Mayweather and Pacquiao’s five-year long negotiation, and came shortly after Mayweather turned down that same amount of money to fight Pac-Man.

At the time, the $65 million guaranteed was the largest sum of money any fighter had been offered. Oscar de la Hoya held the title for highest single-bout earning when he raked in $52 million against Mayweather.

Obviously, that bout never came to fruition. Pacquiao, at the time, was fresh off a win against Shane Mosley and was prepping for his third bout against Juan Manuel Marquez. While it probably wouldn’t have happened in 2011, it still would’ve been tough for both fighters to fit in their schedule.

Given that Canelo lost to Mayweather after an additional two years of experience, it’s unlikely he would’ve beaten Pacquiao at the time. But as we saw with Jeff Horn’s recent win over Pacquiao, all Canelo would’ve had to do was go the distance and hope for a bit of home cooking.

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