Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez has been consistently drawing some of the highest purses in the sport of boxing, and his opponents benefit too.
The ultimate reason the majority of fighters get into the ring and risk their lives is for the money that can be earned, but not all boxers make huge sums. It takes a unique combination of skill, marketability and personality to reach the top.
Former Olympic silver medalist Amir Khan certainly managed to reach the pinnacle by becoming a unified super-lightweight world champion early on in his career. After making a name for himself on the amateur scene, Khan was involved in plenty of huge fights and big wins against the likes of Devon Alexander, Marcos Maidana, Ruiz Collazo and Dmitry Salita.
As well as a late challenge against Terence Crawford for the WBO welterweight world title in 2019, one of the most high profile fights of his career came against Canelo in May 2016. For the bout, Khan made the significant jump from 147 pounds to a catchweight of 155.
After starting well and boxing off the back foot, scoring points and staying out of trouble, the Brit was caught with a hellacious overhand right in the 6th round and knocked out cold.
Speaking to The Stomping Ground, he was asked how much more than his other fights he received for challenging the multi-weight champion.
“It was like times times three or four. When that deal was put to me, it was like 11, 12 million, yeah. Look at this this day, I had to fight Danny Garcia, Andreas Kotelnik, Zab Judah, Lamont Peterson and maybe like a Phil Lo Greco [to make the same amount.] It’s not the fight that;s hard it’s the training camps so when you get an opportunity like that you’re going to take it.”
Khan retired in February 2022 after a sixth-round KO loss to his long time British rival Kell Brook. Canelo still commands huge money and attention in the sport, currently the unified super-middleweight world champion.
