Source: VALERIE MACON / Getty
International boxing superstar Canelo Alvarez said he negotiated the release of his brother, who had been kidnapped in Mexico, days before a 2018 fight against Rocky Fielding at Madison Square Garden.
The details of Alvarez saving his brother from his captors came out during an interview on the nationally syndicated TV show “In Depth with Graham Bensinger” that is scheduled to air this weekend.
https://twitter.com/GrahamBensinger/status/1387526931101462530
“In 2018, the Monday before the fight, and I was always on the phone… I negotiated everything for his release,” Alvarez told Bensinger. “For three days, I negotiated with [the kidnappers] to get them to release him.”
Alvarez, a native of Guadalajara, Jalisco in Mexico, didn’t say where his brother was being held but was grateful he was able to have him returned safely.
“After I negotiated his release, I was still thinking, imagine if it was my daughter, or my mom or my dad, it would have been even more difficult for me.”
“I had to do a thousand interviews. And nobody knew about it,” he added.
Alvarez kept the kidnapping out of the public eye because he was afraid of who might have been behind the crime. The super middleweight fighter also believes Mexican authorities played a part in capturing his brother.
The situation startled him to the point where he is trying to convince his family to move out of Mexico. But noted the process is difficult because “they have their life here in Mexico; I can’t do it.”
Alvarez (55-1-2, 37 KO) is scheduled for a May 8th bout vs. Billy Joe Saunders (30-0, 14 KO) at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
