Is Canelo Alvarez Worth It Anymore? Why PBC Should Move On from The Canelo Business

I couldn’t have been the only one thinking it on Saturday night, while watching the Saul Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga bout from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“Why is this a big deal? Why are people acting like this is actually something worth treating like a big deal?”

Star power is what drives boxing. Don’t let anyone tell you any nonsense about the art of battle, the nobility of war, or even the common sense-sounding thrill of competition. The majority of fans watch the sport because they’re drawn to the stars and want to see them do their thing.

That’s why Saul Alvarez is a “big deal” and why his fights are “big deals,” even when they promise to be only slightly more competitive than a thug mugging an old lady on a security cam video.

Canelo DID put on a big show this Saturday and generated a ton of money along the way. Accurate pay-per-view numbers will probably never be known, but one can assume that buys will fall into the same general range as the Jaime Munguia fight, which was said to have generated around 500K purchases– a pretty good number for this present tense boxing scene.

So, having said all that, I will still ask the question of whether Alvarez is worth the investment anymore.

No Money In Big-Money Canelo Fight?

With a reported guaranteed purse demand in the area of $40 million, plus PPV points, and a sweeter-than-sweet general revenue split deal, there can’t be much left for event organizers, at least relative to the size of the event and the effort needed to put everything together.

According to Alvarez, himself, he gets 80% of everything related to the live gate.

“I keep 80 percent of everything, but I put everything at risk, because I know I generate a lot of money, that is why I keep 80 percent of the profits,” Alvarez told Sway Universe in August. “If you have a soda in the arena, that money is for me.”

And good for him. The talent SHOULD get a lion’s share of the money.

But what good does it do for a boxing company to put on a Canelo fight if they, ultimately, just get pennies on the dollar, while having to do all the grunt work in putting everything together?

There’s the cachet of being the home of Canelo, which surely grabs some eyeballs and, in the case of Canelo’s current partner Premier Boxing Champions (PBC), probably helped get their foot in the Amazon Prime door.

What’s In It For PBC?

For PBC, there’s also the face-saving bragging rights of STILL having Canelo, despite widespread, tactically-spread rumors of him leaving the company earlier this year.

Again, though, these Canelo shows, where PPV numbers continue to trend down, can’t be fattening up the PBC wallet to the extent one would assume from shows that are supposed to be THE domestic boxing events of the year.

Canelo gives PBC brand visibility and increased name awareness. He also attracts sponsors who, maybe, wouldn’t normally gravitate towards the company. That’s all important. But, bottom line, the money can’t be all that spectacular with Alvarez sucking up all of the base revenue with his guarantee, plus a substantial cut from everything after the break-even point.

And it’s not like PBC is getting any direct rub from working with the Mexican superstar, either. They’re not getting a quality in-house fighter matched against him, benefiting from the main stage exposure for their guy and rolling the dice on a passing-of-the-torch breakthrough. It’s not like David Benavidez will ever be the B-side in a Canelo fight.

Alvarez’s last two “PBC fights” have come against a Golden Boy fighter and a Matchroom fighter, which both necessitated co-broadcast deals with DAZN, further siphoning off whatever money is left after Canelo gets his take.

Both of those recent deals, by the way, saw the company pretty much outwit itself in an effort to “keep” Alvarez. Allowing the shows to also be sold via DAZN, which has a regular schedule of boxing programming where the events could be hyped, made it seem as though both fights were DAZN productions. In essence, PBC was footing the bill and doing all the heavy lifting, while DAZN, which reportedly lost money when they were directly doing their own Canelo shows, was making money with little-to-no sweat equity needed and, among casual observers, getting just as much credit for the events as PBC.

But, backroom and boardroom maneuvering aside, it might not be a bad idea to move on from the diminishing returns of the increasingly diva-ish Alvarez.

A whole year of good, solid monthly shows could be funded by what it takes to put on one Canelo event. In the big picture, the building of one’s own stars into boxing-level stardom is a much wiser investment than merely shoving cash into one guy’s coffers.