LAS VEGAS – Something became very apparent Wednesday afternoon as the flow of people increased through the hotel walkways, as reporters searched in vain for an empty seat at the news conference and as the sport’s A-list celebrities created news in a blink.
It’s a Canelo fight week, a spectacle that routinely takes on a life of its own.
Regardless of opponent. Regardless of who’s here. Regardless of who came before him.
This is Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s 14th time headlining a major card on Cinco de Mayo or mid-September’s Mexican Independence Day weekend, and as he heads into Saturday’s defense of his position as undisputed super middleweight champion against unbeaten Mexican countryman Jaime Munguia, the onslaught of happenings Wednesday was proof again how his ability to create the electricity of this big-fight feel is different than everything else.
“Cinco de Mayo belongs to Canelo,” TGB Promotions head Tom Brown said on stage Wednesday to start a news conference that will go down in time as the most forceful air-clearing between two of boxing’s biggest legends ever.
Minutes later, when summoned to speak, Munguia promoter Oscar De La Hoya let spew a three-plus-years uncorking of things he wanted to say to Alvarez, the four-division champion who won titles in every weight class while fighting for Golden Boy Promotions.
And Alvarez, in the most uncensored ways possible, offered his rebuttal.
Through both scenes, the news conference room was frozenly focused on the exchange, transfixed by the high drama of boxing’s running soap opera. This wasn’t WWE. This was real.
A few hours later, word came that De La Hoya’s new star, freshly victorious Ryan Garcia, 25, had submitted a positive test for a banned substance known as ostarine while a “screened positive” for a second banned anabolic steroid metabolite, 19-norandrosterone, will be “confirmed” by a second test, according to a Voluntary Anti-Doping Association report.
Garcia scored three knockdowns of then-unbeaten WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney on April 20 in New York, and with Haney rightfully saying, “This puts the fight in a completely different light,” we’ll now await to see if the New York State Athletic Commission changes Garcia’s victory to a no-contest and dishes out the additional discipline of a fine and suspension.
As we were saying, these weeks take on a life of their own …
And while Saudi Arabia’s chairman of the General Entertainment Authority Turki Alalshikh is transforming the sport by staging a series of stacked fight cards, including the undisputed heavyweight and light heavyweight bouts within a two-week span in the Middle East while scheduling a remarkably loaded Aug. 3 card in Los Angeles, this Las Vegas tradition offers something more familiar and palpable.
“Cinco de Mayo is made for the best possible fights – it’s become more of a boxing holiday,” former welterweight titleholder Paulie Malignaggi said on Wednesday’s episode of ProBox TV’s “Deep Waters.”
“Is Canelo still in the biggest fights of the year? I know the Saudis have taken some of those fights, but he’s definitely in the conversation. As far as fanfare, hype and anticipation, it’s still Canelo Alvarez.”
Malignaggi was speaking in light of words from Jose Benavidez, the father-trainer of unbeaten former super middleweight champion David Benavidez, telling BoxingScene on Tuesday that Alvarez owes it to the sport to select the best opponents possible on these Mexican holiday weekends.
“Even if [Canelo’s] not the best super middleweight in the world,” Malignaggi said, “we’re talking popularity here.”
And it is that of which the 33-year-old Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KOs) brings plenty.
In this return, he’s fighting a countryman for the first time since 2017, after previously saying he would rather avoid such showdowns to let as many products of Mexico as possible to shine in their own way.
“[We’ve] talked about Mexico versus Puerto Rico, but Mexico versus Mexico is low-key the best rivalry because no one wants to be the second-best Mexican when you’ve got the chance to be the star of Mexico – a nation that prides itself on its love and mastery of boxing,” Malignaggi said.
“It’s a very fun rivalry because it engages Mexico and the whole world, because [the fighters perform] at a world-class level.”
Beyond Alvarez’s willingness to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. when Canelo was just 23, “Deep Waters” analyst and former 140-pound champion Chris Algieri said, Alvarez forever endeared himself to his legion of fans by producing an aggressive fight plan to defeat Gennady Golovkin in their 2018 rematch.
“He steps to the plate, goes forward, pushes the pace – and Mexico loves him,” Algieri said.
That may not be a repeat case against the offensive-minded, younger, taller Munguia (43-0, 34 KOs), a former junior middleweight champion at age 27, who participated in the 2023 fight of the year against Sergiy Derevyanchenko and then stopped England’s John Ryder in January after Alvarerz went the distance with Ryder last May in a Mexico homecoming bout.
“I don’t see him going punch for punch versus Munguia,” Algieri said. “[Canelo] doesn’t have the output to match the pace of the younger, fresher Munguia. His best chance is to find those holes, because Munguia’s going to bring it,” and leave himself exposed.
Said Malignaggi: “For Canelo to win, he’s going to have to go for it. It’s not going to be handed to him like the [September Jermell] Charlo fight, when he just had to show up to win.
“The [2022] third Golovkin fight – Golovkin was 40 and spent. And Ryder was a coronation in Mexico. For Canelo to win this fight, he’s got to show something. I think he wins the fight. It’s maybe a year too soon for Munguia.”
At least Munguia has De La Hoya and veteran trainer Freddie Roach on his side to guide him through the rigors of his first major headliner, an appearance that’s old hat to Canelo.
Recalling his own first major fight, against Manny Pacquiao in Macao, Algieri said, “Once I got to the tunnel, everything was the same. Everything before that through fight week was really tough.”
Algieri said it appears Munguia is “focused,” even as he observed the hostilities between his promoter and opponent on Saturday.
“Munguia will bring it to make Canelo show there’s still something in the tank,” Malignaggi said.
Of course, Alvarez already displayed that by lighting into De La Hoya on the latest episode of “Canelo Fight Week.”