Canelo Álvarez
Professional career > Return to catchweight > Álvarez vs. Chávez Jr.

Artikel utama: Canelo Álvarez vs. Julio César Chávez Jr.
Following Julio César Chávez Jr.'s comeback win against Dominik Britsch in December 2016, he claimed he was back and ready to fight Golovkin at 168 lbs and Álvarez at a 164-pound catchweight. Negotiations began soon after for a potential HBO PPV fight to take place in 2017 on Cinco de Mayo weekend, as there was interest from both sides that a fight take place. De La Hoya said a fight with Golovkin would still be likely for September 2017. Golden Boy president Eric Gomez confirmed a catchweight of 165 lbs was agreed between both sides. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman was on board, saying he would likely get his organisation involved in the bout and that it was a "very attractive fight." On 18 December, Julio César Chávez Sr. spoke about the ongoing negotiations, saying Golden Boy were offering his son a small amount for the potential big PPV fight. He went on to claim his son was offered a $5 million purse with no mention he would get a cut of the PPV revenue, a counter offer was submitted. A rematch clause was also discussed, which Chávez Jr. and his team had no problem with. Chávez Sr. went on to admit that he was fully aware Álvarez is the A-side in the fight and would settle for no less than 30–35% of the full revenue.
On 22 December, the WBO made Álvarez the mandatory challenger to the middleweight title, skipping the previous number one Avtandil Khurtsidze, which was considered controversial due to Álvarez currently not fighting at middleweight. Khurtsidze, who had ten days to appeal decision, decided not to. On 24 December, Álvarez and his team gave Chávez Jr. a week to accept the terms, which included a purse of $7 million, or he would consider other options. On 12 January 2017, De La Hoya and Álvarez called for the contract to be signed, which was supposedly sent to Al Haymon, who advises Chávez Jr. and urged him to sign it. A day later, Chávez Jr. claimed he had agreed to all the demands set by Álvarez and said that he would sign the contract. According to Chávez Jr., the new demands included a weight limit set at 164.5 lbs and a $6 million base purse, plus PPV revenue percentages.
On 13 January, Álvarez officially confirmed the fight to take place on 6 May 2017. A rematch clause was also put in place if Chávez Jr. wins the fight and another clause for every pound Chávez Jr. weighs over the limit, he would be fined $1 million. On 4 February, Golden Boy Promotions announced that the fight would take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada. On 22 February, Álvarez announced that he planned on vacating his WBO light middleweight title following the Chávez Jr. fight and fighting at middleweight. On 3 March, The fight was announced a sell out on with 20,000 tickets being sold after they initially went on sale to the public on 20 February. On 11 April, Álvarez spoke to boxing reporters in a teleconference and said that he would fight as a 160-pound middleweight after the Chávez Jr. fight.
According to the NSAC, it was reported that Álvarez would earn $5 million and Chávez Jr. would earn $3 million before any shares of PPV. The figures would increase based on PPV sales.
In front of a sold-out crowd of 20,510, Álvarez won the fight in dominant fashion via a shutout unanimous decision. All three judges scored it 120–108 for Álvarez. Chávez Jr. was very cautious throughout the fight. At times, he came forward and also had Álvarez against the ropes, but failed to throw any punches. This led to jeers from the crowd in the later rounds due to a lack of action. Álvarez spoke to HBO's Max Kellerman in the post-fight interview, talking about his fighting style, "Tonight, I showed I could move, I could box, I showed as a fighter I can do all things. I thought I was going to showcase myself as a fighter that could throw punches, but he just wouldn't do it. I've shown I can do lots of things in the ring, anything a fighter brings, I've shown I can showcase myself." CompuBox stats showed that Álvarez landed 228 of 604 his punches thrown (38%) and Chávez Jr. landed 71 of 302 (24%). By the end of round five, Álvarez landed 102 punches compared to Chávez Jr.'s 25 landed. Early figures revealed that the fight generated at least one million buys. A replay was shown on regular HBO a week later and drew an average of 769,000 viewers. This was the first boxing match to generate over a million PPV buys that didn't include Mayweather, Pacquiao or De La Hoya since 2002, which saw Lennox Lewis retain his heavyweight world titles against Mike Tyson. Later sources confirmed the fight did close to 1.2 million buys, which means it would have generated around $80 million.