Canelo Alvarez's Uphill Climb: Will a Mexican Fighter Be America's Boxing King?

Oscar De La Hoya was teetering, his long reign as boxing's biggest star in serious jeopardy as he stepped into the ring against Floyd Mayweather Jr., a brash fighter in the beginning stages of reinventing how boxing is promoted in America. That was 2007—nine years ago. Ancient times in today's 24-hour cycle of disposable celebrity.

Mayweather, of course, toppled the king, taking on his duties and ceremonial role as the sport's leading man, before finally stepping down last year. In his place there's a void—and a sport desperate to fill it.

Enter Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, who fights Amir Khan for the lineal middleweight title on HBO pay-per-view Saturday in Las Vegas.

Still just 25, Alvarez has been on the verge of worldwide stardom for years. In 2013 he, as the sport designed to see the new supplant the old intended, attempted to take Mayweather's place by force. He failed, losing a bout that wasn't nearly as close as the majority decision the judges turned in.

Two years and seven months later, undaunted, Canelo is once again emerging as the heir to Mayweather and the biggest star in boxing, a sport that needs all the celebrity wattage it can get.

"He's an aggressive, exciting fighter who throws a lot of combinations and goes for the knockout," De La Hoya, now Canelo's promoter at Golden Boy, told Bleacher Report. "That's exactly what the fan wants to see. Outside the ring he's a good citizen and clean cut. He's not bad to the eyes. Women love him and men respect him because of how seriously he takes his craft. We have the perfect product to build and eventually turn into a global superstar."

While promoters are never shy about touting their own fighters, there is evidence to suggest De La Hoya is doing more than just blowing smoke. Canelo's fight last May against James Kirkland attracted a peak of 2,296,000 viewers, according to Nielsen, the most for a boxing card on HBO since 2006.

In November he beat Miguel Cotto, establishing his bona fides as both an elite fighter and as a drawing card, selling 900,000 pay-per-views in a market that had seemingly been destroyed by the less-than-super superfight between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

But Canelo's rise comes at a tricky time in American history. Immigration has become a major issue in the presidential election cycle, with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump looking to draw not just a firm line between Mexicans and Americans, but a literal wall in the dirt. And, while sports often serve as a refuge from these kinds of broader concerns, Canelo may not be able to avoid the big-picture implications of this growing cultural divide. 

"We're in a moment where there is a lot of anti-immigrant hostility," Dr. Jose Alamillo, professor of Chicana/o studies at California State University, Channel Islands said. "[Canelo] will face this challenge and will need to decide how he will deal with it. I think it's important for him to speak out on this issue of immigration. To show that he is representing his fanbase and a lot of people that believe in more humane immigration policy.

"It would mean a lot in his quest to be the next Mexican superstar. Everything he does will be scrutinized, and it's important for him to recognize he has a responsibility. Sports can have an immediate visceral impact," Alamillo said. "Political thought has a lag time. When I ask my students about Cesar Chavez, they think of the boxer first and foremost, not the civil rights leader. What does that tell us? We need to be paying more attention to sports and the impact athletes can have on society and culture."

Canelo, at first glance, seems an unlikely choice to make a political stance of any kind. His interviews are devoid of much personality at all, to the point Canelo is described by The Fight City's Rafael Garcia as a: "boringly tame media-darling who makes the rounds at press conferences and PR exercises. Canelo’s persona as displayed on TV and quoted on press releases is a bland cypher, a hollow vessel into which his adoring fans pour their own vicarious desires."

It's a product of being in the spotlight since he was a teenager—and speaking through an interpreter from his training camp in San Diego, he's as cautious as you'd expect about poking a nest of political fire ants with a stick. 

"I don't know a lot about politics," Canelo said. "A fighter lives in his training camp, and I'm not always paying attention to what is happening on the outside. But I do know the Mexican people and the Mexican-American people in this country are very hard-working people. That's my only comment about Donald Trump."

De La Hoya, with a promoter's instinct for salesmanship, is less careful, suggesting on CNN he made Saturday's fight between Canelo and the Muslim Khan as a direct repudiation of Trump, who has also put the fastest growing religion in the world in his cross hairs.

"Think about it. We're going to be celebrating Cinco de Mayo in one of America's greatest cities," De La Hoya said. "You're going to be watching one of the most popular Mexican athletes in the world compete against one of the most popular Muslim athletes on the globe.

"I think this portrays what America is all about. This event is all about the American dream. I've already extended an offer to Donald Trump. If he wants to come out and witness the fight, because I know he's a big boxing fan, I'll comp him two tickets in the nose-bleed section."

Politics aside, Canelo's attempt to supplant Mayweather as boxing's leading man is far from guaranteed. While a household name in Mexico, thanks to years as the darling of television network Televisa, which has covered his life like a telenovela, he's yet to establish the same relationship with American viewers.  

"I don't think that bridge has fully been crossed. He faces some challenges reaching the mainstream, with language being at the center of them," Dr. Samuel Regalado, a history professor at California State University, Stanislaus, told Bleacher Report. "There's really a great divide. It's a regional issue in many ways. Canelo will have no problem reaching a wide audience in the American Southwest for example. But, based on the sentiments we've seen in this election, especially from people favoring Donald Trump, it won't be nearly as easy in a place like Alabama or Mississippi or places in the Southeast."

Opponent	Date	Analysis
Carlos Baldomir	9/18/2010	First win over a former world champion.
Shane Mosley	5/5/2012	Aging, but still a Hall of Famer.
Austin Trout	4/20/2013	Beat a top opponent in his prime.
Erislandy Lara	7/12/2014	The opponent no one wanted to fight.
Miguel Cotto	11/21/2015	Wins lineal middleweight title.

De La Hoya recognizes the challenges in front of Canelo. He's conquered many of them himself, and the team at Golden Boy has spent years trying to position its fighter for the role he wants to assume. 

"I bought him like five Rosetta Stones," he said with a laugh. "But he's learning it by people speaking English to him when he's in camp. And he's picking it up. We've seen fighters like Manny Pacquiao come to the United States not speaking a word of English. When you make the effort, it helps with that crossover appeal. And that's the next step for Canelo to build into a global star."

Canelo was expected to speak English in many of his vignettes during HBO's 24/7, a reality show designed to get fans excited for the fight. Instead, he delivered just two lines in his second tongue, frustrating some who have been waiting patiently for him to talk directly to English-speaking American fans for the first time.

Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images

"He's a perfectionist," De La Hoya explained. "He tells me when he speaks it, he wants it to speak it perfectly. I told him 'you don't have to be perfect as long as you try.' As long as the consumer who's hearing you knows you're making the effort. He gets it. 

"It's crucial. It's very important that Canelo speaks English. He's taking the necessary steps to speed up that process. He's on his way. Most importantly, he understands what English, and speaking English, can mean for his career."

Even without English in his tool bag, Canelo has made plenty of inroads in America. Tecate has produced a number of ads for the English-speaking market with Canelo at the fore, and hardcore boxing fans, after some initial resistance and complaints about his level of competition, have embraced him wholeheartedly.

His willingness to take on, and defeat, relatively unknown but dangerous fighters like Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara impressed many in an industry used to seeing fighters take the easy way out. And, while not yet a staple of English-speaking television, he remains a presence in the Hispanic market, which includes more than 17 percent of the population and is growing at an enormous rate. 

Rob Foldy/Associated Press

"There's a whole world of athletes and sports culture that mainstream America is only vaguely aware of," Regalado said. "When you see a guy like Canelo start to build his name in the United States, remember they were a name in the Hispanic market well before they came to the mainstream's attention. They were likely already well known before they ever stepped foot in the ring in the United States. It's a little like the Japanese baseball players. Take the great Ichiro. Before American audiences even knew who he was, he was a huge name in Japan." 

Canelo, despite portrayals in the American press, is not an entirely beloved figure in Mexico. The political minefields he's navigating in America are not so different, in many ways, from the battles over race and class that have lurked just beneath the surface in Mexico for years. 

"He's viewed differently than many of the others in a long line of Mexican boxers, Julio Cesar Chavez as the most prominent. Even though he may fight a Mexican style, he embodies a different kind of Mexican," Alamillo said. "He's not stereotypically Mexican. Certainly he's not a stereotypical Mexican boxer—darker-skinned, darker-haired. There's a long legacy of fighters, and they don't look anything like Canelo. They very much represent the Mestizo kind of Mexican that people view as the underdog. 

"There's a lot of resentment among some fans about the way lighter-skinned Mexicans get a certain amount of privilege. They are able to pass as white in the United States, and when you think of the Spanish-speaking media, it tends to privilege lighter-skinned actors and actresses and celebrities. There is this sort of bitterness towards lighter-skinned Mexicans. That doesn't mean they won't root for him. But it does create some divide among Mexican fans."

Canelo doesn't exactly ignore these challenges in front of him. Instead, he focuses his energies on the problems he can single-handedly solve—the ones inside the the squared circle. Winning, for any athlete, is paramount. Beating Khan, and then perhaps facing the fearsome Gennady Golovkin in a middleweight title unification bout later this year, would go a long way toward maximizing Canelo's impact, both politically and economically.

"You know, athletes can definitely have an impact on society. And it's great that athletes can be a part of uniting the population," Canelo said. "I feel honored that the Hispanic community in the United States have embraced me. I'm really happy and honored to receive their support. That's why I always want to give my best. It's what motivates me to perform and deliver a great fight for the fans every time."  

Jonathan Snowden covers combats sports for Bleacher Report.