Two-division world champion Paulie Malignaggi has hit out at undisputed super-middleweight title-holder Canelo Alvarez for supposedly avoiding his fellow 168lb contenders in favour of ‘gimme matchups’.
Alvarez recently revealed that he would be taking on an American in his annual Cinco De Mayo bout, which will take place on May 4th, ruling out the likes of Jaime Munguia, David Morrell and most importantly David Benavidez, who are of Mexican heritage.
To say that this has disappointed and underwhelmed fans is an understatement, with middleweight champion Jermall Charlo the man expected to challenge Canelo in less than three months’ time.
Malignaggi felt the same way about the proposed contest, and slammed the fight on his YouTube channel Paulie TV, whilst questioning why Canelo has not been stripped of his world titles.
“Canelo vs. Jermall Charlo – that’s May 4th. I want to see how you Canelo blowhards are going to defend this one. I’ve got to really see how you can defend this one. How are you going to defend this one?
“When David Benavidez and David Morrell are in the super-middleweight division and you have got all of those belts, how are the sanctioning bodies going to defend the fact that they are not going to strip him? What are we doing?
“He [Canelo] is just stealing money essentially, if you are going to make gimme matchups, easy fight matchups, avoid all of the top competitors and take everybody’s money.
“At this point, if you are buying a Canelo fight with this kind of opposition, you deserve to get your money taken, you deserve what you get. He can only pull this off because enough of you people decide this, feed into this and defend it more than anything else.”
The Charlo fight comes just months after Alvarez defeated Jermell Charlo, twin brother of Jermall, although he claims that talks are yet to begin, despite Canelo indicating that the event is edging closer to an announcement.