Canelo Alvarez has dealt with some of the top fighters throughout his career, but dealing with his brother’s kidnapping must have been the toughest challenge he’s faced.
In the days leading up to Canelo Alvarez’s WBA Super Middleweight title fight with Rocky Fielding, he received some startling news about his brother.
While he should have been celebrating Canelo’s title fight win over Gennady Golovkin and preparing to face Fielding, the Mexican boxing great was frantically dealing with the safe return of his brother instead.
It makes the build-up to Canelo’s fight with Terence Crawford pale in comparison, but he will be hoping that he can pull out a similar performance on September 13.
Canelo Alvarez negotiated with the kidnappers to ensure his brother’s safe return before his world title fight
In the days leading up to the title bout with Fielding, Canelo was embroiled in negotiations with kidnappers in Mexico over the safe release of his brother.
Despite having media to deal with and a world title fight to prepare for, Canelo kept the entire thing under wraps, peacefully agreeing to a deal to secure his brother’s safety.
He spoke about the ordeal during an interview with Graham Bensinger, the world champion, revealed he spent the days before the fight on the phone, fighting for his brother’s release from captivity.
Canelo said: “2018. Monday before the fight, [he was kidnapped]. I was on the phone, and I negotiated everything for his release. For three days, I negotiated with those a—— so they would let him go. Three days.
And on top of that, I had to fight on Saturday and had a thousand interviews and everything, and no one knew anything.
“Everybody thinks ‘wow’ it’s very easy’, but nothing is easy in this life, everything is difficult.”
Despite the incredible stress he was under as he worried for his brother’s life, you couldn’t tell anything was going on behind the scenes when Canelo stepped into the ring.
Canelo Alvarez knocked out Rocky Fielding in just three rounds amid the kidnapping drama
After the stress of his part-time role as a hostage negotiator, Canelo took out all his anger and anguish on Fielding as he secured another world title belt for his collection.
The Mexican made his Madison Square Garden debut when he challenged English fighter and WBA Super Welterweight champion Fielding.
This was Fielding’s first defense of his title and the first fight in Alvarez’s new multi-million dollar deal with DAZN.
He gave them their money’s worth in the December 15, 2018, fight in New York. The commentary team questioned whether the taller champion could even “survive” 20 seconds into the bout, and that question was answered after three rounds of domination.
Canelo outpunched the Englishman before a right hand knocked him down him in the third round, before the referee warned him that if he went down again, he’d end the fight.
Soon after, a thunderous body shot put Fielding down to his knee, and Canelo won the fight via a technical knockout.
He celebrated not only winning the world title, but also the safe return of his brother that night.