CANELO ÁLVAREZ
AS HE BUILDS HIS BUSINESS EMPIREA PATCHWORK COLLECTION OF MEXICAN GAS STATIONS, CONVENIENCE STORES, A BUS COMPANY AND A COCKTAIL BRAND-THE 33-YEAR-OLD CHAMPION IS ONCE AGAIN PUNCHING ABOVE HIS WEIGHT IN PURSUIT OF BECOMING A BILLIONAIRE.
At his ranch on the southwestern outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico, Saúl Álvarez, the country's most famous boxer, settles into a leather chair next to a zebra-skin rug.
Behind him is a floor-to-ceiling window offering a view of a dirt paddock where he can ride his 30-odd horses, stabled next to a towering horse sculpture and the peacocks that greet visitors through the property’s front gate. The back entrance is plenty impressive as well, with a Mercedes-AMG G 65 waiting to whisk him away to a nearby golf course—through a colossal metal door straight out of Jurassic Park—as members of his staff zip in and out in cars emblazoned with the nickname by which he is universally known: Canelo.
Álvarez was No. 5 on Forbes’ 2023 list of the world’s highest-paid athletes, with $110 million in pretax earnings over the 12 months ending in May. Since the list began in 1990, he is one of just 15 athletes to have reached nine figures in a single year, joining the likes of Roger Federer, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. In fact, Álvarez, a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 class of 2018, can get halfway there in one fight, collecting about $1.4 million per minute for a 12-round bout. That has pushed the 33-year-old super-middleweight’s career earnings to nearly $600 million (pretax), according to Forbes estimates—so when Álvarez says that boxing is “not about money,” it’s partly because he doesn’t need it. “I love everything about boxing,” Álvarez says, 18 years into his professional career, not even a scratch visible on his face two weeks after September’s dominating victory over Jermell Charlo. “I love my routine. I love training. I love being in the gym, my diet, my sparring—everything.”
Álvarez has the mantra NO BOXING, NO LIFE tattooed on his left biceps and is an athlete so disciplined that he even hit the gym during his honeymoon. The work is hard, no doubt, but this is a boxer who grew up in rural poverty and used to fight for $40, who broke his right thumb in the second round of a 2016 bout and still finished with a knockout, who had to negotiate with kidnappers for the release of his brother the week of a 2018 title fight. Against all that, what’s a little road work at dawn? “That’s made me feel alive,” Álvarez says of squaring off with legendary opponents like Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013 (one of his two losses) and Gennadiy Golovkin (a draw and two decision victories between 2017 and 2022). He has also loaded up on 12-round fights when many of his peers are content to stop at ten. “That’s why I’m here, to put myself at risk, in a challenge.”
These days, Álvarez is looking for new challenges outside the ring, and that means hitting the metaphorical heavy bag to build and strengthen his business muscles. He has a new goal that may be even more daunting than becoming an alltime boxing great: “Be a billionaire,” he says, unflinching.
ONLY FOUR ATHLETES have ever amassed a ten- figure fortune, and just two of them—Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James and golfer Tiger Woods—did so while still active in their sports. (Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson—see page 22—joined the billionaire club long after they had retired from the NBA.) Forbes estimates that Álvarez is worth at least $275 million, a bit shy of fellow star athletes Russell Westbrook ($375 million) and Serena Williams ($290 million).
This is especially impressive given his business empire is in its early rounds. Over the last two years, Álvarez has launched a chain of five gas stations in western Mexico called Canelo Energy and an associated chain of 20 convenience stores called Upper. He also recently rolled out VMC, a tequila-based canned cocktail, and Yaoca, which makes sports drinks and supplements. That adds to a portfolio that already included boxing and entertainment ventures (Canelo Promotions and Canelo Espectáculos), a fitness app (I Can), a clothing line through his online Canelo Store and El Pastor Del Rica, a taquería he opened with his brother in the Guadalajara area that will soon open a second location in San Diego. (Álvarez divides his time between the two cities.)
The combined revenue of these disparate enterprises is small—less than $50 million—and given the low-margin nature of many of the businesses, Forbes estimates their total value is similarly under $50 million. But some of the ventures have huge potential and are growing fast. Álvarez partnered with Mexican spirits producer Casa Lumbre on VMC and with Mexican businessman José Carlos Montibeller on Yaoca, but he otherwise has taken no outside investors and retains 100% ownership in his other companies.
“It matters a lot because I came from nothing,” Álvarez says of his lofty business goals. “I didn’t go to school. So for me, I feel proud that I can show to other people, to other kids, to my kids, that you can do anything, even if you have nothing.”
Raised in Juanacatlán, a tiny town 20 miles southeast of Guadalajara, Álvarez is the youngest of eight children. He had his first brush with business through his father, who sold popsicles for a living as a paletero. At age 7, Álvarez went to work for his dad, proving to be a good salesman on public bus routes. “Maybe because I’m redheaded and the ladies would say, ‘Oh, how cute, how cute,’ ” Álvarez says with a smile. His light hair—an unusual sight in Mexico—also caused him problems. Other kids would call him names like “Enchilado” or “Chilaquil,” common Mexican foods with a reddish tint. Young Saúl made them pay with his fists.
He found a better outlet in boxing at age 10, inspired by his oldest brother, Rigoberto, a pro boxer from age 22. Three years later, Rigoberto introduced Saúl to the gym of Eddy Reynoso and his father, José “Chepo” Reynoso, who, in addition to developing Álvarez’s fighting skills, came up with the ring name that would define him: Canelo, after the Spanish for cinnamon. Álvarez turned pro at 15, dropping out of school to focus on boxing and sell more popsicles, which he did for another two years. Work became a bigger financial imperative after he had his first daughter at 17. (He now has two daughters and a son.)
Listed at 5 feet 7½ inches for his most recent fight, Álvarez isn’t physically imposing even by the standards of a super-middleweight, but he is a lethal counterpuncher and a master tactician. His official record as a pro now stands at 60-2-2, with 39 knockouts, and he is the undisputed champion at 168 pounds. He has also held titles in three other weight classes and is a social media champ as well, with 16.7 million followers on Instagram, more than any other boxer of his generation. Álvarez has sold out arenas in Las Vegas (and anywhere else he wants to fight) for a decade and has been consistently bankable for pay-per-views. “This is a guy that can consistently hit 500,000, 700,000, 800,000, a million pay-per-view buys,” says Eddie Hearn, chairman of Matchroom Boxing, which promoted six of Álvarez’s fights before a split earlier this year. “People in boxing aren’t really doing that in America outside of the megafights. And when you’re talking about live gate, you’re consistently looking at $12, $15, $20 million. Again, no one is even comparable in America unless it’s a megafight.”
In Mexico, a country with a proud boxing tradition, Álvarez is a national hero. “I’ve seen Michael Jordan in Chicago, I’ve seen Derek Jeter in New York, I’ve seen Tom Brady in Boston, and nothing even comes close,” says his agent, Mike Fonseca. When Álvarez threw a birthday party for one of his daughters in Guadalajara last year, as many as 20,000 people showed up outside, estimates Carlos Bremer, the president of financial services company Value Grupo Financiero and a former panelist on Shark Tank México, who is Álvarez’s friend and business mentor. Describing a similar scene at a May weigh-in, with tens of thousands of fans hoping to catch a glimpse, Hearn says, “It’s like hanging out with one of the Beatles—just pandemonium.”
MANY ATHLETES ARE happy to make a quick buck by slapping their face on a product, no matter what it is. Not Álvarez, who has always been selective with endorsements and currently has only one major sponsorship, a deal with Anheuser-Busch worth an estimated $2 million annually. He is not always front and center with his own businesses, either, often leaving it to customers to figure out his connection through inside-joke Easter eggs.
His convenience stores, for instance, are branded Upper, for “uppercut,” and they sell an exclusive line of coffee called Santos, Álvarez’s given name as well as his father’s. His gas stations use a fuel additive called P4P, for “pound for pound.” His canned cocktails feature his image and signature on the back, but the front of the cans say VMC, for “Viva Mexico, Cabrones,” an expression he shouts after victories that roughly translates to “long live Mexico, dudes.”
Álvarez also acknowledges that he can be sentimental, even with his investments. In 2022, he bought the bus line on which he once sold popsicles, and he wants to open his...
AS HE BUILDS HIS BUSINESS EMPIREA PATCHWORK COLLECTION OF MEXICAN GAS STATIONS, CONVENIENCE STORES, A BUS COMPANY AND A COCKTAIL BRAND-THE 33-YEAR-OLD CHAMPION IS ONCE AGAIN PUNCHING ABOVE HIS WEIGHT IN PURSUIT OF BECOMING A BILLIONAIRE.
At his ranch on the southwestern outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico, Saúl Álvarez, the country's most famous boxer, settles into a leather chair next to a zebra-skin rug.
Behind him is a floor-to-ceiling window offering a view of a dirt paddock where he can ride his 30-odd horses, stabled next to a towering horse sculpture and the peacocks that greet visitors through the property’s front gate. The back entrance is plenty impressive as well, with a Mercedes-AMG G 65 waiting to whisk him away to a nearby golf course—through a colossal metal door straight out of Jurassic Park—as members of his staff zip in and out in cars emblazoned with the nickname by which he is universally known: Canelo.
Álvarez was No. 5 on Forbes’ 2023 list of the world’s highest-paid athletes, with $110 million in pretax earnings over the 12 months ending in May. Since the list began in 1990, he is one of just 15 athletes to have reached nine figures in a single year, joining the likes of Roger Federer, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. In fact, Álvarez, a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 class of 2018, can get halfway there in one fight, collecting about $1.4 million per minute for a 12-round bout. That has pushed the 33-year-old super-middleweight’s career earnings to nearly $600 million (pretax), according to Forbes estimates—so when Álvarez says that boxing is “not about money,” it’s partly because he doesn’t need it. “I love everything about boxing,” Álvarez says, 18 years into his professional career, not even a scratch visible on his face two weeks after September’s dominating victory over Jermell Charlo. “I love my routine. I love training. I love being in the gym, my diet, my sparring—everything.”
Álvarez has the mantra NO BOXING, NO LIFE tattooed on his left biceps and is an athlete so disciplined that he even hit the gym during his honeymoon. The work is hard, no doubt, but this is a boxer who grew up in rural poverty and used to fight for $40, who broke his right thumb in the second round of a 2016 bout and still finished with a knockout, who had to negotiate with kidnappers for the release of his brother the week of a 2018 title fight. Against all that, what’s a little road work at dawn? “That’s made me feel alive,” Álvarez says of squaring off with legendary opponents like Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013 (one of his two losses) and Gennadiy Golovkin (a draw and two decision victories between 2017 and 2022). He has also loaded up on 12-round fights when many of his peers are content to stop at ten. “That’s why I’m here, to put myself at risk, in a challenge.”
These days, Álvarez is looking for new challenges outside the ring, and that means hitting the metaphorical heavy bag to build and strengthen his business muscles. He has a new goal that may be even more daunting than becoming an alltime boxing great: “Be a billionaire,” he says, unflinching.
ONLY FOUR ATHLETES have ever amassed a ten- figure fortune, and just two of them—Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James and golfer Tiger Woods—did so while still active in their sports. (Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson—see page 22—joined the billionaire club long after they had retired from the NBA.) Forbes estimates that Álvarez is worth at least $275 million, a bit shy of fellow star athletes Russell Westbrook ($375 million) and Serena Williams ($290 million).
This is especially impressive given his business empire is in its early rounds. Over the last two years, Álvarez has launched a chain of five gas stations in western Mexico called Canelo Energy and an associated chain of 20 convenience stores called Upper. He also recently rolled out VMC, a tequila-based canned cocktail, and Yaoca, which makes sports drinks and supplements. That adds to a portfolio that already included boxing and entertainment ventures (Canelo Promotions and Canelo Espectáculos), a fitness app (I Can), a clothing line through his online Canelo Store and El Pastor Del Rica, a taquería he opened with his brother in the Guadalajara area that will soon open a second location in San Diego. (Álvarez divides his time between the two cities.)
The combined revenue of these disparate enterprises is small—less than $50 million—and given the low-margin nature of many of the businesses, Forbes estimates their total value is similarly under $50 million. But some of the ventures have huge potential and are growing fast. Álvarez partnered with Mexican spirits producer Casa Lumbre on VMC and with Mexican businessman José Carlos Montibeller on Yaoca, but he otherwise has taken no outside investors and retains 100% ownership in his other companies.
“It matters a lot because I came from nothing,” Álvarez says of his lofty business goals. “I didn’t go to school. So for me, I feel proud that I can show to other people, to other kids, to my kids, that you can do anything, even if you have nothing.”
Raised in Juanacatlán, a tiny town 20 miles southeast of Guadalajara, Álvarez is the youngest of eight children. He had his first brush with business through his father, who sold popsicles for a living as a paletero. At age 7, Álvarez went to work for his dad, proving to be a good salesman on public bus routes. “Maybe because I’m redheaded and the ladies would say, ‘Oh, how cute, how cute,’ ” Álvarez says with a smile. His light hair—an unusual sight in Mexico—also caused him problems. Other kids would call him names like “Enchilado” or “Chilaquil,” common Mexican foods with a reddish tint. Young Saúl made them pay with his fists.
He found a better outlet in boxing at age 10, inspired by his oldest brother, Rigoberto, a pro boxer from age 22. Three years later, Rigoberto introduced Saúl to the gym of Eddy Reynoso and his father, José “Chepo” Reynoso, who, in addition to developing Álvarez’s fighting skills, came up with the ring name that would define him: Canelo, after the Spanish for cinnamon. Álvarez turned pro at 15, dropping out of school to focus on boxing and sell more popsicles, which he did for another two years. Work became a bigger financial imperative after he had his first daughter at 17. (He now has two daughters and a son.)
Listed at 5 feet 7½ inches for his most recent fight, Álvarez isn’t physically imposing even by the standards of a super-middleweight, but he is a lethal counterpuncher and a master tactician. His official record as a pro now stands at 60-2-2, with 39 knockouts, and he is the undisputed champion at 168 pounds. He has also held titles in three other weight classes and is a social media champ as well, with 16.7 million followers on Instagram, more than any other boxer of his generation. Álvarez has sold out arenas in Las Vegas (and anywhere else he wants to fight) for a decade and has been consistently bankable for pay-per-views. “This is a guy that can consistently hit 500,000, 700,000, 800,000, a million pay-per-view buys,” says Eddie Hearn, chairman of Matchroom Boxing, which promoted six of Álvarez’s fights before a split earlier this year. “People in boxing aren’t really doing that in America outside of the megafights. And when you’re talking about live gate, you’re consistently looking at $12, $15, $20 million. Again, no one is even comparable in America unless it’s a megafight.”
In Mexico, a country with a proud boxing tradition, Álvarez is a national hero. “I’ve seen Michael Jordan in Chicago, I’ve seen Derek Jeter in New York, I’ve seen Tom Brady in Boston, and nothing even comes close,” says his agent, Mike Fonseca. When Álvarez threw a birthday party for one of his daughters in Guadalajara last year, as many as 20,000 people showed up outside, estimates Carlos Bremer, the president of financial services company Value Grupo Financiero and a former panelist on Shark Tank México, who is Álvarez’s friend and business mentor. Describing a similar scene at a May weigh-in, with tens of thousands of fans hoping to catch a glimpse, Hearn says, “It’s like hanging out with one of the Beatles—just pandemonium.”
MANY ATHLETES ARE happy to make a quick buck by slapping their face on a product, no matter what it is. Not Álvarez, who has always been selective with endorsements and currently has only one major sponsorship, a deal with Anheuser-Busch worth an estimated $2 million annually. He is not always front and center with his own businesses, either, often leaving it to customers to figure out his connection through inside-joke Easter eggs.
His convenience stores, for instance, are branded Upper, for “uppercut,” and they sell an exclusive line of coffee called Santos, Álvarez’s given name as well as his father’s. His gas stations use a fuel additive called P4P, for “pound for pound.” His canned cocktails feature his image and signature on the back, but the front of the cans say VMC, for “Viva Mexico, Cabrones,” an expression he shouts after victories that roughly translates to “long live Mexico, dudes.”
Álvarez also acknowledges that he can be sentimental, even with his investments. In 2022, he bought the bus line on which he once sold popsicles, and he wants to open his...
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Forbes (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 2023 - January 2024