Superstar Canelo Alvarez says he is willing to fight former UFC champion Conor McGregor in a boxing match next year. Canelo feels he will knock out the 36-year-old McGregor whenever he wants within three rounds.
Canelo would face tremendous backlash if he chose to fight McGregor in a boxing match, as it would follow the same path as Floyd Mayweather Jr. runs with famous exhibition matches.
That’s about as low as Canelo can go to try to earn extra cash for his retirement. Alvarez is already filthy rich, with an estimated net worth of $250 million.
Mayweather vs. McGregor generated and brought in $600 million in revenue for their August 26, 2017 event 4.3 million PPV buys. Apparently Floyd made the rounds $280 million while McGregor got around $130 million.
Mayweather picked McGregor at the right time when he was still popular and at the top of the sport in the UFC. McGregor has done zero since that fight and has been living the life of a wealthy aristocrat ever since.
If Canelo wants to take advantage of what’s left of McGregor’s popularity, he could make good money fighting him. What a terrible fight though.
Alvarez is too young to go that route with his career, and it would send the wrong message to fans of the sport by making a mockery of boxing. McGregor will likely lose to YouTubers Jake Paul and KSI. That’s how mediocre McGregor is, and he’s not young.
A fight between Canelo and McGregor would still generate a lot of revenue from casual fans. The state of Nevada will probably even approve the fight as a professional fight for the record books, but it won’t be remotely sporting.
The question is, who will the Canelo vs. Funding McGregor fight to make it happen? McGregor is no longer active in his MMA career and has not fought since his defeat
Irish fighter McGregor has lost three of his last four fights. He is nowhere near as popular as when he fought Mayweather in 2017 and was knocked out in the tenth round.
“Yes, why not? Then we will show boxing is better. Easy, easy. Very easy money … (I beat him out) at the time I want. One round, two rounds, three rounds – whatever I want,” Canelo told the Manouk Akopyan channel when asked if he would be interested in fighting Conor McGregor.
The boxing public prefers Canelo fight real boxers like David Benavidez, Artur Beterbiev, Dmitry Bivol or Terence Crawford rather than picking from the bottom of the barrel to fight McGregor.