CANELO ALVAREZ revealed his brother was KIDNAPPED just days before his fight with Rocky Fielding and he had to negotiate the release.
The Mexican superstar dispatched of Fielding in comfortable fashion in December 2018 with a third-round stoppage.
But little did anyone know behind the scenes, Canelo was facing a much larger fight to secure his brother’s safety.
In an interview with Graham Bensinger, boxing’s top attraction opened up on the frightening ordeal which occurred only days before he fought.
Canelo, 30, said: “Over the phone, I negotiated all the – I negotiated everything for his release.
“For three days, I negotiated with those a**holes so they would let him go. Three days.
“After I negotiated, I was still thinking, imagine if this had been my daughter, my mother, my father. For me it would’ve been more difficult.
“And on top of that I had to fight on Saturday, and a thousand interviews and everything, no one knew anything.
“And that’s what I’m getting at, everybody thinks, wow, you know, they see me up there and say, ‘Wow, it’s very easy’.
“But nothing is easy in this life, everything is difficult.”
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Canelo, a four-division champion, did not specify what one of his six brothers were kidnapped.
The pound-for-pound No1, who fights Billy Joe Saunders on May 8, hails from Guadalajara, but has adopted San Diego as his US training base.
Becoming the hottest prize fighter in the world, Canelo has fought exclusively in America for the past ten years, but still lives in Mexico.
His last fight in Mexico was in 2011, and he opened up on why plans to leave his homeland completely, amid safety concerns.
Canelo said: “This is why I’m not here in Mexico much anymore, because it’s not safe.”
