Do we like them?

Do we like Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez?

Our score: 6 out of 10. A decent record with a couple of real blemishes, and little on the record about how he treats people outside the ring.

The latest chapter is a comeback. After losing his undisputed super middleweight titles to Terence Crawford in September 2025, Canelo returned in Riyadh on 31 October and beat Christian Mbilli to take the WBC belt back. Reports put the cards at a unanimous decision to the Mexican.

The run-up was messier than the result. With reported attacks on Riyadh's airport, Oscar De La Hoya said human lives should come before the event's financial interests, and the WBC's Mauricio Sulaimán called keeping the fight on irresponsible. Canelo reportedly said he felt safe. The Saudi money behind these cards also draws sportswashing criticism, which is the bit where some of our readers might wince.

The best-known blow-up outside the ring came at the 2022 World Cup. After a video appeared to show Lionel Messi near a Mexico shirt in a locker room, Canelo fired off threats on social media. He then apologised, saying he got carried away by the passion and love he feels for his country. That's a hot-headed moment, owned and apologised for, rather than a pattern we found.

Then there's the 2018 drug-testing saga. Canelo tested positive for clenbuterol twice, and the Nevada commission put him on a temporary suspension. He blamed tainted meat in Mexico. Rivals including Jermall Charlo have since made fresh doping claims, but those are claims from opponents and not findings against him.

On the harm test, we found nothing nasty. Nothing from him against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or public health turned up in the search, and his only brush with politics was fight-promo stuff in 2016 and 2017 that we couldn't open and verify. To be straight with you, the record is thin here, so that's a pass on what we found, not a clean bill of health.