Last year, Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez became a free agent when he parted ways with longtime promoter, Golden Boy Promotions.
The tension between Canelo and Golden Boy was becoming very apparent in late 2019.
In 2020, Canelo filed a lawsuit to break away from his contractual ties to Golden Boy and streaming service DAZN.
Eventually all parties reached an agreement to go their separate ways.
Canelo has since returned to DAZN, but he competes on their outlet on a fight by fight basis.
He’s currently a free agent, with a one fight obligation with promoter Eddie Hearn. That obligation will be satisfied when he steps in the ring on May 8 in a WBC, WBA, WBO super middleweight unification.
In a recent interview, Canelo explained that at some point he didn’t trust De La Hoya and Golden Boy.
“At some point [De La Hoya] disappointed me, because they are people who only look out for their own good and their own interests. They say ‘I am your friend, we are family’, but it is never like that. And we are loyal; but not all people are like that,” Canelo told Telemundo.
“They didn’t manipulate me, but they wanted to gamble different things on me. They said one thing and it was another, I realized that three or four years ago. Before signing with DAZN, there were already problems with them. I disagreed with a lot of things that they did. We did a lot of good things too. We did a lot of fights together and things happen for a reason. God puts each person in his position.
“Everything is good [with being your own boss]. You are in control of everything, you are not under the pressure that someone is manipulating your career or mismanaging your money. Before, a lot of things happened that I don’t want to talk about. But right now, as a free agent, it’s incredible.”