Move over, Giancarlo Stanton.
Canelo Alvarez, one of the best pound-for-pound boxers on the planet, has signed a five-year, 11-fight contract worth a minimum of $365 million with new sports streaming service DAZN, according to ESPN.
The deal, which was finalized early Wednesday morning, is the richest athlete contract in sports history, eclipsing the 13-year, $325 million contract Stanton signed with the Miami Marlins in 2014. (Miami traded Stanton to the New York Yankees before the 2018 Major League Baseball season.)
Alvarez, who’s part of Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, is the unified middleweight world champion. He owns a 50-1-2 record — his only loss coming against undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2013 — and just defeated Gennady Golovkin last month in a battle featuring two of boxing’s biggest superstars.
The lucrative deal comes on the heels of HBO recently announcing its plan to pull the plug on its boxing coverage by the end of 2018, forcing Alvarez and others to seek new broadcast homes. DAZN, which launched in the United States in September, stepped up to the plate, culminating with a deal that will begin when Alvarez fights Rocky Fielding on Dec. 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
“Canelo is the highest-paid athlete in the world. He’s extremely happy,” De La Hoya told ESPN after Alvarez signed his new contract.
The potentially good news for fight fans: Alvarez’s bouts typically have cost around $80 apiece on pay per view, but the DAZN all-sports streaming service charges $9.99 a month and features an assortment of combat sports offerings, per ESPN.
