Why Canelo Alvarez isn’t fighting in May as four-year streak is ended

Canelo Alvarez will be entering unfamiliar territory this year with no fight scheduled for Cinco De Mayo weekend.

Alvarez traditionally has fought on the weekend of Cinco De Mayo, the opening weekend in the month of May.

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It is a Mexican tradition where the public celebrate the country’s dethroning of the Second French Empire over 150 years ago.

He has then fought on Mexican Independence weekend around the date of September 16.

Largely throughout his career the pound-for-pound superstar has stuck to this strict May regime, but in 2020 and 2021 his plans were scuppered by the Coronavirus pandemic.

But since his 2021 victory over Billy Joe Saunders, which came the weekend after Cinco De Mayo celebrations, he has kept to his May date.

Alvarez has had a streak of four fights on the Mexican holiday weekend in May, losing to Dmitry Bivol, before beating John Ryder, Jaime Munguia and William Scull.

But that streak is now set to be broken.

Canelo’s reason for not fighting on Cinco De Mayo

For Alvarez, the date will simply come too soon after his defeat to Terence Crawford last September.

That is because the 35-year-old has only just been cleared to return to training after having surgery.

After losing to Crawford, Alvarez went for an operation on his elbow in October to deal with a long-term injury.

He has only just returned to training in recent days, taking on some light gym work.

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So with a full training camp, Alvarez is instead working towards fighting on the weekend of Mexican Independence.

Canelo confirmed he will fight as part of his deal with Turki Alalshikh, as what is part of a plotted ‘Mexico vs the World’ bill in Riyadh.

And he is targeting an immediate world title shot against recently crowned WBC champion Christian Mbilli in his first defence.

Boxing for fans to look forward to in May

Despite Canelo’s notable absence, there will be plenty of mouthwatering action to look forward to in May.

The most notable stacked event will be headlined by Oleksandr Usyk’s WBC heavyweight title clash with Rico Verhoeven on May 23.

Stateside, Keyshawn Davis will return in the middle of May in a tantalising second meeting with Nahir Albright.

Boxing schedule

For all the upcoming fights and results this year, check out talkSPORT.com’s  boxing schedule.

On May 30, a host of boxing’s finest stars will be in action including light-heavyweight top dog Dmitry Bivol.

A bumper all-American clash between O’Shaquie Foster and Raymond Ford was also recently announced to take place on a busy evening.