Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez flies the flag for Mexico each and every time he steps through the ropes.
Having kicked off his professional campaign at the age of 15 fighting in the small clubs and auditoriums of Guadalajara, Alvarez rose through the ranks at pace. He went 43 fights undefeated before coming up against Floyd Mayweather at 23-years-old and losing a majority decision.
Between then and his next loss – an ambitious second step up to light-heavyweight against Dmitry Bivol in 2022 – Canelo beat the likes of Gennady Golovkin, Miguel Cotto, James Kirkland, Danny Jacobs, Sergey Kovalev and Billy Joe Saunders.
He is now unified champion in the super-middleweight ranks – formerly undisputed but stripped of the IBF belt recently – and is yet to be bested in that division. As a mega star, it’s no surprise that he has been mentioned alongside the greats of his country like Salvador Sanchez, Julio Cesar Chavez and Carlos Zarate to name a few.
Famed trainer and analyst Teddy Atlas has been open in the past when ranking other Mexican fighters above Canelo quite clearly, however, speaking on his podcast, he recently named the two wins that would make him reconsider.
“First of all, I don’t think he has to be the greatest Mexican fighter of all time to get his flowers. I think he’s a great fighter and he fits into the great heritage and tradition of great Mexican fighters. He belongs. That’s enough. Look, if he wanted to be the greatest, for me, for Teddy Atlas, if he goes out and fight Benavidez and beats him, he fights a rematch with Bivol and beats him, you know what? I’d have to consider it. Yeah. Fair is fair. I sure as hell would.”
Following his latest dominant points victory over Edgar Berlanga, it’s understood that Canelo’s first target is the Bivol rematch. He has shown little interest – although says he will take it for the right money – in the fight against David Benavidez despite the latter chasing it for years.
