Why Do So Many Mexicans Hate Canelo Alvarez?

Canelo Alvarez when defeated by Dmitry Bivol (Instagram @matchroomboxing)

JAKARTA - Saul Canelo Alvarez is considered one of the best boxers of the last 10 years. In fact, for the past five years, he has been the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world.

He has many world championships, he has also signed multimillion dollar contracts, he is one of the highest paid and most popular athletes on the planet. However, she lacks something to be recognized for in Mexico, the country where she was born.

According to Marca, every time Canelo fights, Mexico is paralyzed. Television ratings were the highest, millions of people watched it, but many turned on the TV to watch it lose, they wanted Canelo to fight badly. That was why, in his final fight against Dmitry Bivol, many people celebrated his defeat.

Canelo is not the first Mexican to be criticized

In the 80s, a Mexican triumphed in Europe, in the most important team in the world, Real Madrid. Hugo Sanchez transformed into the best striker Los Blancos. He is considered the best center forward in the world and one of the best players on planet earth.

Even so, Sanchez was criticized at home, his success seemed to hurt them. Sanchez, at the time, said a phrase that went deep into the imagination of Tricolor fans:

"Mexicans' worst enemies are other Mexicans", "The Malinche kids don't love me", "There are a lot of crabs in Mexico".

Those words resonate today more than ever when we see that there are Mexicans who criticize everything Canelo does. If he wins: "They bought the opponent", if he wins: "We know Canelo is not good". Always criticized.

When boxing fans were asked why they didn't like Canelo, their answer was: "Because he's a television product, he's a marketing product."

But, can an athlete - even with all the marketing in the world - survive 10 years at the pinnacle of the sport? No, especially when training in a sport as hard as boxing, where every time you step into the ring you are risking your life.

Canelo was an elite athlete, disciplined, wealthy and victorious, his legacy will live on for many years. Today no boxer in the Mexican circle comes close to him.

When Canelo retires, Mexicans will miss what it was like to speak of a country in the world thanks to a man who knew how to represent him with dignity.

Apparently, Canelo will be far from being idolized like Raúl "Ratón" Macías, Rubén "Púas" Olivares, "Chango" Casanova and Julio César Chávez. However, whenever Canelo is mentioned in the future, boxing fans around the world will remember him with big smiles.

Everyone, except the Mexicans.