After an uninspiring 2024 featuring two distance wins over mediocre opposition, the venerable career of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez enters a new and potentially closing chapter this weekend.
It is not quite a retirement tour just yet, but the ‘Canelo Show brought to you by Riyadh Season’ will officially launch on Sunday morning when the Mexican legend climbs through the ropes for a 67th time somewhere around 6am in the Saudi Arabian capital.
The sight of Canelo – boxing’s leading light since May 2015 when his demolition of James Kirkland fumigated the stench left by the anticlimactic Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao super fight – enjoying his annual Cinco de Mayo outing, mariachi band and all, in the Middle East would have been inconceivable as recently as two years ago, but the kingdom is now a hub for big fights and their famous protagonists.
Thirty-four is hardly a pensionable age in boxing, but Canelo began at 15 and has fought professionally in each of the past three decades. While he might have seen it all in the ring, this is in fact something new to him – he has never boxed outside of North America – and has spoken about the thrill of performing in a new market away from his usual haunts of Texas or Nevada.
“I'm very excited,” he told Dazn. “It's one of my dreams, fighting in another country, and now I'm close to it. It makes me feel excited and motivated.
“Here, in Riyadh, they treat me like at home, so I feel good. I feel the love. I have had two weeks here already. They treat me like a king.
“Sometimes it is different, but they treat me really good and I appreciate that. It's very important [to become undisputed again] because I want to be the first and only one.”
What sort of crowd or atmosphere will mark the occasion remains to be seen given the unusual early morning start, optimised for an American TV audience who will consume the action prime time.
Canelo remains a draw. That is despite a gradual decline in his powers that can be measured by the diminishing threat of his opposition and a now near four-year knockout drought that should end at the ANB Arena.
His rival, the Germany-based Cuban William Scull, is arguably his weakest opponent since he boxed Avni Yildrim in February 2021 and has been brought in to surrender his IBF belt as Canelo dazzles for his new Saudi paymasters.
That would replenish the Mexican’s super middleweight title stockpile to the full complement of four, adding further prestige to a planned showdown with Terence Crawford in September.
In fact, everything this weekend is geared towards teeing up that bout – a personal mission of Turki Alalshikh, the man behind Saudi Arabia's boxing boom.
It is worth noting that nobody asked for Canelo-Crawford given their disparity in size and weight, but Alalshikh has been determined to make it happen.
When the kingdom made its foray into prizefighting it was natural to assume they would immediately target Canelo and create a moment similar to when Al Nassr brought Cristiano Ronaldo to the Pro League.
However, Canelo played hard to get, even sparking a war of words with Alalshikh who responded by accusing him of taking easy fights.
He was not wrong – but after a long pursuit, the Mexican will now take them, easy or not, under the Saudi banner after signing a four-fight deal in February.
Beyond Scull and Crawford, Canelo has a long-standing desire to fight in the UK where there is mutual admiration between him and the British fans, and a stadium fight against Chris Eubank Jr has been mooted.
After that, who knows? It seems unlikely he will again face an elite fighter comparable in size such as David Benavidez, a natural opponent he has avoided, or Dmitry Bivol, who he chose not to rematch following defeat in 2022.
The path ahead looks to be one of showcases and curiosities – much like a veteran Ronaldo scoring 25 goals a season against the likes of Al Ettifaq and Al Taawoun.
Scull should not last six rounds, but if he does then perhaps it will do more to promote the Crawford fight than a spectacular knockout would.
Crawford, who started his career as a lightweight, looked near his physical limits when posting a narrow victory over Israil Madrimov at light-middleweight. He must jump up two further weight classes to face Canelo.
The consensus is that it will be too much even for a genius like Crawford – unless Canelo's decline accelerates.
Scull might be a lacklustre name, but what happens in the ring on Sunday morning in Riyadh will go a long way to shaping the narrative for one of the biggest boxing events of the year.
That September blockbuster is rumoured to be interesting executives at Netflix as Alalshikh continues to make moves.
Last year he made an extremely shrewd one when he acquired Ring Magazine to use as a shiny veneer for his new promotional enterprise – the famous American boxing publication providing instant brand recognition as well as being an established media outlet.
This weekend, Canelo takes part in just one of three major shows sponsored by Ring.
The first, featuring Teofimo Lopez, Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney, all in separate fights, will take place in Times Square, New York, as Alalshikh ups the ante in the US market.
Canelo provides the meat in the sandwich, or sando, before Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue – signed up by Riyadh Season last year – makes a rare appearance on US soil against Ramon Cardenas at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday night.
It felt like Canelo was late to the Saudi boxing party – it seems he only missed the appetisers.
