Canelo Alvarez allegedly turned down $150m when offered to face an unbeaten world champion, who has since become one of the sport’s flagship fighters.
The 35-year-old is no stranger to monstrous paydays, having earned a reported nine-figure sum for his last outing, against Terence Crawford, who emerged with a unanimous decision victory in September.
Regardless of the result, Canelo was involved in arguably the most lucrative boxing event of 2025, suggesting that his commercial value has remained consistently high.
Previous mega fights with the likes of Floyd Mayweather and Gennady Golovkin have only elevated his bank balance, while a 2022 points defeat to Dmitry Bivol at light-heavyweight has seemingly had no bearing on his popularity.
But while the Mexican is undoubtedly one of boxing’s biggest stars, many have accused him of avoiding the most formidable challenge during his first undisputed title reign.
Canelo was in possession of all four major titles at 168lbs between 2021 and 2024, during a time in which David Benavidez held the WBC ‘interim’ title.
But despite several attempts to negotiate their blockbuster showdown, it ultimately seemed that Alvarez had no interest in facing his mandatory challenger.
Since then, Benavidez has claimed the WBC light-heavyweight title and now looks to become a three-division world champion against Gilberto Ramirez on May 2.
While speaking with YouTuber N3ON, though, the 29-year-old expressed a measure of frustration that his super-middleweight opportunity against Canelo never materialised.
“They wanted to pay Canelo 150 [million dollars]. He didn’t want it. I would f**k him up.”
Now challenging for Ramirez’s WBO and WBA cruiserweight titles at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, Benavidez appears even further removed from a potential clash with Canelo.