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Canelo Alvarez may not have any desire to stick around in boxing any longer than he has to, but he apparently is not about to abandon it anytime soon either.
The Mexican superstar and current undisputed 168-pound champion recently offered a loose timetable of where he sees himself in the sport down the line, saying he plans on fighting for “six to seven” more years before calling it quits.
“I don’t see myself out of boxing,” Alvarez said on the Boxing with Chris Mannix podcast. “I want to fight many years. You know, this is a sport where you have a [short] time, I always just say six years, seven years more and that’s it, maybe less, maybe more. But we don’t know.”
Alvarez, 31, has already accomplished enough to the point that he is arguably a lock for the Hall of Fame if he decides to retire tomorrow. Alvarez started his professional career as a teenager in 2005, when he was only 15 years old. Since then he has gone on to collect titles across four divisions. Last year, he picked up all the major belts in the 168-pound ranks to become the first boxer of Mexican origin to attain undisputed status in the three and four-belt era.
Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) will look to add to his lofty credentials when he faces WBA light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) May 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in a 12-round 175-pound title bout. Alvarez has expressed a desire to unify the 175-pound division.
Alvarez admitted that walking away from the sport would not be easy – whenever that day comes.
“No, it’s gonna be hard,” Alvarez said. “But it is what it is.”
He added, “The body tells you when it’s time to go.”
One thing Alvarez has no intention of doing is milling around in the sport in advanced age like Bernard Hopkins. The middleweight champion from Philadelphia holds the record for oldest fighter to win a world title at 49.
“No, that case is special,” Alvarez said of Hopkins, laughing. “I don’t want to be fighting at 50 years old.”
Alvarez also brushed aside the idea of participating in some sort of hybrid or crossover bout with a notable figure from the UFC anytime soon, presumably because has other ambitions in mind. In addition to taking over the 175-pound division, Alvarez has floated the idea of scaling up to the cruiserweight ranks. As far as hybrid bouts go, there has been no shortage of opponents calling out Alvarez’s name. Most recently that person has been UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.
“Not right now,” Alvarez said of those matches. Then he cracked, “Maybe when I [am] 88 years old, 87, you never know.”
He added that such fights would be “Even more easy money.”