SAUL ‘CANELO’ ALVAREZ’S £300million DAZN contract – the biggest in sporting history – was cut short last year after just three of the 11 bouts had been completed.
The Mexican parted ways with the broadcaster and his promotional outfit Golden Boy – fronted by Oscar de la Hoya – after a dispute over the terms of the deal.
It lasted less than two years having been struck before his fight against Rocky Fielding at the end of 2018.
The only other fights he undertook while the contract was ongoing were against Danny Jacobs and Sergey Kovalev.
And he has now opened up about the reasons why he decided it was time to leave the lucrative contract and become a free agent.
Speaking to In Depth with Graham Besinger, he said: “Look, I don’t like to talk much about people, but I’ve been a very loyal person, always. And I was very loyal, always with Golden Boy. [De La Hoya] is not Golden Boy. He doesn’t do anything in Golden Boy. He’s worried about drinking, and being involved in other thing.
“The decisions are made by other people. When Richard Schaefer left Golden Boy, he took all the boxers to PBC. He took all of them. And he also wanted to take me – and I was the only boxer that stayed with Golden Boy, because I’m a loyal man.
“But then, later I understood why everyone had gone and why Richard Schaefer left. Because those who are in Golden Boy, they are only looking after their own benefit, not the boxer’s benefit.
“There’s no loyalty there [in Golden Boy]. None. They don’t even know what that is. We were involved in a lawsuit in Miami [with All Star Boxing], which I think we would win because they were lying about everything.
“So we won the lawsuit, but the jury determined that I indeed wasn’t under contract, but I had to give [All Star Boxing] eight million dollars. But before that, when I signed before the fight with Cotto with Golden Boy, I came to an agreement with [Golden Boy on the All Star lawsuit].
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“And that’s when I became aware that they were only concerned about themselves, not about me.”
Canelo was earning around £28m per fight but wanted to earn more if he took on one of the bigger names such as Gennady Golovkin.
However, he insists DAZN wanted to pay him the same fee irrespective of who the opponent was, something he refused to get on board with.
“Yes. It was something completely different. I my contract, I said, the fights are for such amount, but if I fight against Golovkin, or Mayweather, or a name like that, that’ll have to be negotiated,” he added.
“Because I’m not going to fight for the same amount. We negotiate it. But no. Golden Boy had already promised [those fights] and had already signed with DAZN that I was going to for sure fight with Golovkin for the same amount. And they never told me that.”
Alvarez left Golden Boy and DAZN in 2020 but immediately returned to the streaming platform on a two-fight deal with British promoter Eddie Hearn.
The first fight of that deal was a third round stoppage of Avni Yildirim in February, with the second a unification clash against Billy Joe Saunders this weekend.
Canelo and Saunders came face to face earlier this week after a heated argument over the size of the ring nearly led to Britain’s WBO super-middleweight champion flying home.
The pair will clash at the AT&T Stadium in Texas in front of 70,000 fans on Saturday night.
