Canelo Says Three or Four Fights Remain

Canelo Alvarez has put a number on what remains of his boxing career, and it is a small one.

Speaking ahead of his October 31 fight with WBC middleweight/" class="internal-link text-bone underline decoration-ash/30 hover:decoration-gold underline-offset-2">super middleweight champion Christian Mbilli in Riyadh, the 36-year-old said he expects no more than three or four fights before he retires.

"I don't do it because I get big paydays. It's because I really still enjoy boxing. But there's nothing out there for me to prove. I've accomplished pretty much everything in boxing. There's maybe three or four more fights left for me,” Canelo

The career he is drawing toward a close is one of the sport's most accomplished in the modern era. A period of undisputed dominance at 168 pounds. Signature wins over Miguel Cotto, Gennady Golovkin across three fights, Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant, and others that defined a decade at the top of the sport. The losses — to Floyd Mayweather, Dmitry Bivol, and Terence Crawford — each came with context and each was followed by continued high-level competition rather than managed decline.

The Crawford loss last September is the closest thing on his record to unfinished business. Crawford defeated him to become undisputed super middleweight champion before retiring, fragmenting the titles and leaving Mbilli elevated to WBC champion in the aftermath.

Mbilli is unbeaten and holds the title legitimately, but he arrived at it through circumstance rather than a defining performance that established him as the clear best in the division.