As the boxing world gears up for Tyson Fury’s return from ‘retirement’ for a trilogy fight with Derek Chisora, many would have expected to see plenty of beef between the old foes on social media in the build-up to the fight on Saturday.
What we didn’t expect to see was Canelo Alvarez beginning a war with Lionel Messi and subsequently Sergio Aguero after the World Cup clash between Argentina and Mexico where the iconic forward led his team in exemplary fashion as per.
The GOAT put on a much needed 10/10 performance on Saturday evening to save his side from a shock, humiliating early exit. He broke the deadlock just after the hour mark with a Goal of the Tournament contender, beating the seemingly unbeatable Guillermo Ochoa. He then set up Enzo Fernandez’s late strike which put the game to bed.
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Why was Canelo angry with Lionel Messi?
After the match, footage of the Argentinians celebrating went viral on social media, with the players back in their changing room after swapping shirts with the Mexicans on the pitch, meaning there was plenty of green in the dressing room.
Some of the shirts naturally ended up on the floor and around the changing room as the players celebrated their win, but this didn’t go down well with Canelo who was quick to slam Messi on social media for his actions.
This all led to the boxer taking to social media to go on a tirade against Messi, saying: “Did you guys see Messi cleaning the floor with our jersey and flag.
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“He better pray to God that I don’t find him. Just like I respect Argentina, he has to respect Mexico!
“I’m not talking about the country as a whole, just about the b******t that Messi did.”
Sergio Aguero defended Lionel Messi
His former teammate for The Albicelestes jumped to his defence by claiming: “Mr. Canelo, don’t look for excuses or problems, surely you don’t know about soccer and what happens in a locker room.
“The shirts are always on the floor after the games are over due to sweat and then if you see well, he makes the movement to remove the boot and accidentally hits it.”
Obviously this seems to be the case, Messi is exemplary on the pitch and leads by example, I can’t imagine he was intentionally disrespecting Mexico.
BRONNITSY, RUSSIA - JUNE 19: (L-R) Sergio Aguero and Lionel Messi of Argentina arrive pirior a training session at Stadium of Syroyezhkin sports school on June 19, 2018 in Bronnitsy, Russia. (Photo by Gabriel Rossi/Getty Images)
Canelo vs Messi continues
The little magician appears to be living in Canelo’s mind rent free still, with the Mexican still taking aim at the superstar on social media, now even falling for a clearly fake photo in his truly bizzare vendetta against Messi.
In reply to an off topic tweet from Canelo, a fan replied with a clearly doctored image that is posing as a screenshot from Messi’s Instagram story, however it doesn’t take a genius to work out that it is a fake photo.
Depicted in the fake image is an old Mexican shirt (not even the current World Cup shirt, come on Canelo!) on the floor being beaten by a stick, so it’s meant to be Messi hitting the Mexican shirt with a stick in response to the fighting talk from the Mexican. He didn’t take it well, calling Messi a ‘HDP’ which means ‘son of a b***h.’ Tell us how you really feel, Canelo.
View: Canelo calls Lionel Messi a ‘son of a b***h’
Just as we thought 2022 couldn’t get any more outlandish, we now have one-sided beef between one of the greatest boxers of his generation and the greatest footballer of all time over an incident which was normal and nothing untoward was intended.
I think Canelo needs to learn not everything he sees on social media is as it seems, but after such an obvious case of a fake photo, maybe he’s got too much work to do!