Boxing News: Canelo Alvarez Rules Super-Middleweight Journey

2023/03/15

Canelo Alvarez, AKA Canelo, is a great modern Mexican professional boxer who has won many world championship titles, including the WBA Super Title, World Boxing Championship, and The Ring Championship. He has held various titles in the middleweight and super middleweight divisions.

He has the WBA (Super), WBC, and Ring magazine belts since 2020, as well as the IBF and WBO titles since 2021. He is the first and only boxer in history to achieve the status of undisputed super middleweight champion.

He is known for his excellent counterpunching and body-punching techniques. Canelo Alvarez has won 30 of his first 43 professional bouts by knockout, remaining undefeated. He was ranked by BoxRec as the world's best active boxer, pound for pound, in December 2018.

Additionally, he was ranked by The Ring as the third-best active boxer and by the Boxing Writers Association of America as the eighth-best. He was also ranked by BoxRec and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board as the world's best active middleweight boxer.

Boxing News: Canelo Alvarez Rules Super-Middleweight Journey

Canelo Alvarez's Early Life

Santos Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez Barragán was born on July 18, 1990. The place of his birth is somewhere in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Canelo Alvarez is the youngest of eight siblings. His siblings there are six brothers and one sister. His family basically came from Los Reyes, Michoacán.

When Canelo was five years old, his family migrated to Juanacatlán, Jalisco where they are currently residing. Alvarez was motivated to join boxing as a career by his older brother, who was also a professional boxer. All his brothers later on joined boxing as a professional. Alvarez grew up learning horseback riding, and his nickname "Canelo" means cinnamon in Spanish.

Canelo Alvarez's Professional Career

Canelo Alvarez is a Mexican professional boxer who has won multiple titles in different weight categories. He turned professional after winning the Junior Mexican National Boxing championships and quickly proved to be a skilled boxer, winning against several opponents and clinching many titles.

He won his first professional title, the Jalisco welterweight title, in 2007 and continued to retain it in his matches against various opponents. Alvarez won multiple titles, including WBC Youth welterweight title, WBC Silver light middleweight title, WBC light middleweight title, WBA (Unified) light middleweight title, and The Ring middleweight title.

In his match against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013, Canelo Alvarez lost multiple titles in a single fight. He has to lose WBA (Unified), the World Boxing Championship, and The Ring light middleweight titles. This marks his first-ever international defeat in his boxing career.

After that, he bounced back by winning three fights and those fights won him The Ring, the title The Lineal, title and the World Boxing Champion middleweight title against Miguel in 2015 against Miguel Cotto.

Alvarez vacated the WBC title and returned to light middleweight, winning the WBO light middleweight title against Liam Smith in 2016. In 2017, his match against Gennady Golovkin for titles like WBA and the IBF. He also fought for the vacant lineal middleweight title that ended in a split draw. He finally defeated Golovkin in a closet bout in 2018, winning multiple titles in the process.

In 2018, DAZN signed a huge deal with a whopping amount of $365 million for 5 years with Alvarez. It means they bought the broadcasting and streaming rights for his next 11 bouts in the United States of America.

Canelo Alvarez's Record

Canelo Alvarez Record
Total Boxing Fights 62
Won By TKO/KO 39
Won By Decisions 19
Losses 2
Draws 2
Titles Won 9
Titles Defense 12

Canelo Alvarez's Stats

Canelo Alvarez Stats
Height 5 Feet 9 Inches (175cm)
Weight 75 Kg (165 pounds)
Reach 70.5 inches
Stance Orthodox
Body Muscular
Body Measurements Biceps 15 Inches
Chest 41 Inches
Waist 33 Inches
Hair Color Reddish Brown
Eye Color Brown

Boxing News: Canelo Alvarez Rules Super-Middleweight Journey

Canelo Alvarez's Fighting Stance and Skills

Canelo is a Mexican boxer, but he fights differently than traditional Mexican boxers. He is a methodical tactician that usually depends on his complete package of skills to win bouts. Canelo loves to knock down opponents during the time of a fight and usually wins by decision. He isn’t reckless and does not attack aggressively.

Canelo is a counterpuncher who primarily looks for opportunities to counterpunch in most of his fights. Canelo Alvarez is able to do this because of the great and quick movement of his head. He is popular as a "small" middleweight at 175 centimeters, so he is an electrifying opponent to face. Due to the sharp movement of the head, he fights quite low and expects his opponents to vary his levels and accept the conditions.

Canelo has superb defensive awareness that separates him from typical Mexican boxers. He applies his specific defensive formulas for example bobbing, slippery punches and head rolling. These techniques really annoy his opponents. Canelo further has a gift of proper footwork. This foot movement allows him to rotate and turn around his body perfectly.

Canelo uses unorthodox combinations that are non-traditional and creatively unique. He sometimes gives hooks to his head and after that hook he quickly five a punching shot to the opponent’s body. He lays traps for his opponents using a set of his feints and sudden traps so that the opponent has to concede.

Canelo Alvarez's superior ring intelligence is what sets him apart from other fighters. He is a thinking fighter who creates openings and capitalizes on them. His style is entertaining and effective, and he continues to be one of the top boxers in the world.

Canelo Alvarez's Personal Life

Canelo Alvarez is a professional boxer that hails from Mexico, who is Catholic, and was engaged to Marisol González before marrying Fernanda Gómez in May 2021. He has four children with different women. Outside of boxing, Álvarez enjoys playing golf and plans to retire from boxing by age 37 to focus on his business and golfing. He greatly promotes boxing in Mexico and created Canelo Promotions with the collaborations of his trainers Chepo and Eddy Reynoso. The company represents 40 boxers throughout Mexico.

Boxing News: Canelo Alvarez Rules Super-Middleweight Journey

Recent Boxing News of Canelo Alvarez

Canelo recently took part in a bout against Gennady Golovkin. In that fight, he beat Gennady Golovkin after a unanimous decision. The scoreline of the match was115–113, 115–11, and 116–112. During the fight, Alvarez injured his left arm. After that match, he went for his left arm surgery. Alvarez said in the interview that his fight with Golovkin was not a competitive match but a personal fight. He also said Golovkin spoke too much against him in the media. Now, he has recovered from that injury and is eager to face his rival, John Ryder.

What next fight for Canelo Alvarez?

Canelo Alvarez's return to their boxing reign is expected to be in May 2023. He himself hinted at this after his post-match interview in Sep 2022. There are speculations about his fight with John Ryder, who is currently the interim WBO super Middleweight Champion. He wants to set up a warm match before a rematch with his arch-rival Dimetry Bivol in September. Canelo is looking for equations to settle between him and Bivol, who defeated him by a unanimous decision in May 2022. This was the second fight that Canelo lost in his entire career. Canelo Alvarez’s first fight loss was back in 2013 when Floyd Mayweather Jr. knocked him out.

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