WBC President to Boxing: Stop Bullying Canelo!

When WBC president for life, Jose Sulaiman passed away more than a decade ago, we lost his unintentionally humorous and frequently vexing Gancho al Higaro (Hook to the Liver) column. His son and nepo WBC president, Mauricio, however, has been doing fine filling that void in our boxing lives with his similarly vexing “12th Round” column.

In the most recent edition of the 12th Round, the heir to the Sulaiman bloviation empire had one simple message to boxing meanies: Stop bullying Canelo Alvarez!

“The World Boxing Council (WBC), with its global WBC Cares platform, joins in seeking awareness of bullying,” Sulaiman wrote.

Finally! Finally, someone takes a stand…in seeking…awareness of bullying? Bravo?

But, then, El Presidente got specific.

Saul Alvarez, Victim of Bullying

“I will mention someone who is constantly bullied: Saul Alvarez,” Sulaiman continued.

“Even though he is one of the most outstanding athletes in the world who proudly carries the banner of our sport of boxing, and has achieved a very successful sports career and enormous prestige, Canelo is a constant victim of cyber bullying.

“Since he became known and then famous, he caused envy due to his success…which prompted some bias journalists to take up the banner of attacking Canelo.

“Social networks can be cruel. There are people who hide in anonymity or in the distance to pour poison with the bile of their comments. Canelo is strong psychologically and mentally, and has managed to overcome that eternal campaign of harassment from strangers and even from some known journalists.”

Sulaiman would then bluntly and roughly transition into a lengthy infomercial for Alvarez’s September 14 bout with Edgar Berlanga. Ironically enough, Canelo-Berlanga, with the Mexican star currently listed as a -1400 to -2500 betting favorite, stands to be so one-sided that it might actually classify as bullying. Charging 90 bucks for the privilege of watching the manslaughter could also be a type of bullying.

Anyway, let’s stay on that topic of bullying.

That Time Canelo Was Accused Of Beating Up A Little Person

Back in 2011, when Canelo was first stepping into superstar status, there was an arrest warrant issued for him in his home state of Jalisco in Mexico. The warrant was for an alleged assault on a much smaller man, former junior flyweight champ Ulises Solis.

As this writer reported on Yahoo! Boxing, back when Yahoo! was still employing more human beings than drones:

“Solis claims to have been attacked by Alvarez outside of a training facility in Guadalajara over a dispute involving Alvarez’s girlfriend at the time. According to the 5′ 3″ Solis, the much bigger WBC junior middleweight champ blindsided him with a left-right combination to his jaw that knocked him to the ground. The combination would allegedly be followed by another left-right while Solis was already down…Alvarez, by the way, has denied the allegations…Solis was left with a fractured jaw, a chipped tooth, and alleged lingering injuries that have effectively ended his career as a world class fighter. [Solis would retire shortly after the alleged assault, following a second-round KO loss to Edgar Sosa, who he had already beaten twice as a pro].

‘This fight proved that I’m not ready to fight yet,’ Solis told media after the Sosa loss. ‘But I did it because I don’t have anyone to take care of me. I have a family to support. I have a wife, kids. I’m not right. I still have consequences from an eye injury. I see double. That punch that he [Sosa] gave me wasn’t a knockout punch, I’ve received harder punches that didn’t do anything to me…My chin is still not recovered from that cowardly attack from Canelo.’”

Sosa, by the way, never got his day in court, after nearly two years of pursuing charges (including the 18 months it took for anyone to even timidly tap Canelo on the shoulder about answering the charges). Not surprisingly, the Mexican legal system worked exactly as the Mexican legal system works.

Also, per this writer, on Yahoo!:

“Instead of being taken into custody and sent to defend himself against the long-standing charges, Canelo reportedly avoided his home state of Jalisco and went straight to Mexico City, where he was given a hero’s welcome and invited to meet with Mexican President, Enrique Pena Nieto. In a forty-five minute private meeting, the 22-year-old champ would present Nieto with the gloves he used in the [Austin] Trout fight.

On April 30, a statement was issued from district judge, Alejandro Guevara Pedroza, dismissing all charges against Alvarez and even clearing the name of Alvarez’s brother, Juan Ramon, who had actually taken the blame for the assault. According to Judge Pedroza…there was ‘insufficient evidence’ available to further pursue the case.”

Insufficient evidence…when someone actually confessed to the crime. Chew on that.

Canelo, The Boxing Business Bully?

But, anyway, back to bullying.

What Canelo allegedly did to Solis would definitely be considered bullying, if true. But he was just 21 at the time, a kid. Kids do stupid stuff. Bullying, however, comes in many forms.

As Sulaiman so astutely put it, “Bullying is cowardly, vindictive, and those who inflict take advantage of someone else’s condition…It is aggressive behavior, it can be verbal, psychological, physical, and social, and now even cybernetic.”

It can also be professional, like the head of a sanctioning body doing whatever he damn well pleases with fighters’ careers or a fighter, himself, taking advantage of his position and leverage to do whatever HE damn well pleases– at the fans’ expense.

In pure boxing matters, Canelo Alvarez has been a bully these last couple years. The man has definitely done a lot of positive work over the course of his 19-year professional career and, when he’s inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, he’ll fully deserve it. But this last run of his is the stuff of pure “because I can” privilege, something which he has, actually, pretty much said with his now infamous.“I don’t need to fight anybody…I don’t need to prove anything to anybody…It is what it is” thumb to the fans’ collective eye.

There was the safe-ish tap dance around Gennady Golovkin in part 3 of their series in September of 2022, then John Ryder (!) in May of 2023. then junior middleweight champ Jermell Charlo in September of 2023, then a decent selection in Jaime Munguia in May of this year, and now Berlanga.

All of this while actively telling people that the one guy they want to see him fight, the one guy actually deserving of the shot, David Benavidez, is not going to get an opportunity, simply because he doesn’t want to give it to him and, yeah, because he doesn’t care what the fans think. He just wants you to buy what he throws out there and learn to like it.

Bullies bully because they feel they can get away with it, because people don’t stand up for themselves.

Stop The Bullying!

When it comes to Canelo’s recent bully run, there’s most definitely a way to make it stop.

“Each of us can deal with this terrible situation,” Sulaiman wrote in his column. “[We can] do a lot of things at home, at work, in groups of friends, in associations, groups and, obviously, on a personal level. Don’t look the other way.”

In the consumer/boxing world, “dealing with this terrible situation” means not buying fights that only exist as cynical cash grabs. It means demanding quality, competitive fights that aren’t simply well-polished showcase squashes sold to you as impulse buys. It means telling Canelo, “umm, no, It’s NOT what it is and, yeah, you do need to prove something to us, the people you ask to buy your fights and make you richer. You need to prove you can give us a real fight where the result isn’t known at the contract signing.”

Then, in my rich imagination, I picture Sulaiman, who suddenly found a burr of conscience in his velvet track suit, turning to Canelo, wagging his sausage finger in the cash cow’s face, and repeating the words from his recent column, “If you are a bully, STOP NOW.”