Canelo Álvarez

Santos Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez Barragán (Latin American Spanish: [saˈul ˈalβaɾes]; born 18 July 1990) is a Mexican professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in four weight classes, from light middleweight to light heavyweight, including unified titles in three of those weight classes. In 2021, Álvarez became the first boxer in history to become the undisputed super middleweight champion, before becoming a two-time undisputed super middleweight champion in 2025. He also held the Ring magazine super middleweight title from 2020 to 2025.

Álvarez began his professional boxing career at age 15 and, by 20, became the youngest boxer to claim the World Boxing Council (WBC) light middleweight title in 2011. In 2013, he beat Austin Trout to win the World Boxing Association (WBA) (Unified version) and Ring titles. In the same year, he lost his WBC and Ring light middleweight titles to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his first professional defeat. He defeated Miguel Cotto to win the WBC and Ring middleweight titles in 2016. That same year he returned to light middleweight to beat Liam Smith to win the World Boxing Organization (WBO) title. In 2017, he fought unified middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin to a split draw. Their rematch in 2018 saw Álvarez beat Golovkin to become the WBA (Super version), WBC, and Ring middleweight champion. The following year, he beat Rocky Fielding for the WBA super middleweight title (Regular version) and won the International Boxing Federation (IBF) middleweight title from Daniel Jacobs in 2019. Later that year, Álvarez made his light heavyweight debut, knocking out former unified champion Sergey Kovalev to claim the WBO title.

He went on to beat three unbeaten fighters (Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders, and Caleb Plant) to win all four titles at super middleweight, a feat he achieved inside 12 months. In May 2022, he returned to light heavyweight and challenged for the WBA (Super) light heavyweight title, but was defeated by Dmitry Bivol via unanimous decision. Known as an excellent counterpuncher, Álvarez is able to exploit openings in his opponents' guards while avoiding punches with head and body movement. He is also known as a formidable body puncher. The Ring ranked Álvarez as the world's best boxer, pound for pound, from 7 November 2019, to 7 May 2022. One of boxing's biggest ever pay-per-view stars, he is consistently one of the highest-paid athletes in the world, making Forbes' list of the world's highest-paid athletes in 2019, 2022, and 2023. He was the top-earning boxer of 2023, earning a reported $110 million.

Early life

In an interview, Álvarez explained that he was born on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Jalisco, but his family is originally from Los Reyes, Michoacán. At the age of five, his family moved to their current home of Juanacatlán, Jalisco. Growing up on his family's farm, he learned horseback riding, which he continues today. Álvarez is the youngest of eight children, seven of them boys; all of his brothers also became professional boxers. Among his brothers are welterweight boxers Ramón Álvarez, Ricardo Álvarez and former WBA interim world champion, Rigoberto Álvarez.

Canelo in Spanish is the masculine word for cinnamon, which is a common nickname for people with red hair. In Mexico, it is common for people to associate red hair with the Irish soldiers who fought for Mexico in the Saint Patrick's Battalion during the Mexican–American War. Speaking about his ancestry, Álvarez once said, "There might have been an Irish grandfather somewhere back in my past." Canelo's neighbors nicknamed him "Jícama con Chile", which translates as jicama with chilli flakes — a popular snack in Mexico.

Amateur career

Álvarez started boxing when he was around 13 years old, after watching his older brother Rigoberto debut as a professional boxer. In 2004, he won the silver medal at the Junior Mexican National Championships, held in Sinaloa. He became the 2005 Junior Mexican National Boxing Champion in Tuxtla Gutiérrez at the age of 15. His amateur record was 44–2 with 12 knockouts.

Professional career

Early career

Álvarez turned professional at 15, shortly after his championship at the Junior Nationals, because his trainers at the time, father-and-son team Chepo and Eddy Reynoso, were unable to find suitable junior opponents for him. In his first 19 months as a professional, he knocked out eleven of his 13 documented opponents, all of whom were significantly older. The elder Reynoso stated in 2013 that Álvarez had fought ten more times in that span, winning all ten by knockout (KO), but that these fights (apparently in small venues in the Mexican state of Nayarit) were so poorly documented that it was not worth the trouble to seek to have the record corrected. Were this to be verified, his record would be 73–2–2 with 49 knockouts. His weight fluctuated in his first three years as a professional including two documented fights within the light welterweight limit of 140 lbs—one against Abraham Gonzalez in Álvarez's official debut and the other against Juan Hernandez in his sixth official bout—before he settled in the welterweight division at 147 lbs.

Álvarez's third official bout of his career was a win over future IBF lightweight champion Miguel Vázquez on 20 January 2006, in his home town of Guadalajara, Jalisco. On 28 June 2008, Álvarez defeated Vázquez again in a rematch. He also made world history on that fight card when he and all six of his brothers fought on the same night, with Canelo being the youngest. The only downside was that three of them failed to win their pro debuts. The other four more experienced brothers won. On 6 March 2010, he got a crushing third-round KO over Brian Camechis in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas. Álvarez then defeated José Cotto on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Shane Mosley to retain his WBC-NABF welterweight title.

Light middleweight

His sixth-round technical knockout (TKO) win over Luciano Leonel Cuello for the WBC Silver light middleweight title was held at the Vicente Fernández Arena. During the post-fight interview, Mexican singer Vicente Fernández gave Álvarez a horse. He was also given a horse by the mayor of Tepic, where Álvarez sometimes trains.

He next faced the former WBC welterweight champion Carlos Baldomir at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, on the Shane Mosley vs. Sergio Mora undercard. Baldomir stated in a pre-fight interview that he wanted the winner of Mora vs. Mosley, as he said "after I knock out El Canelo." Baldomir weighed in at 69.6 kg (153.4 lb) for the bout, that was contracted for 68 kg (151 lb). In California, if a fighter is overweight he is penalized 20% of his purse and that percent is given to the other fighter. However, Álvarez declined to take the extra $12,000 from Baldomir. In the sixth round, Álvarez landed a crushing blow that knocked Baldomir out cold. With the victory, Álvarez became just the second boxer ever to stop Carlos Baldomir and the first boxer ever to knock him out. Álvarez then successfully defended his light middleweight title by unanimous decision against former world champion Lovemore N'dou in Veracruz. It was a competitive fight despite the wide margins on the official scorecards of 119–109, 120–108, and 120–108.

Álvarez vs. Hatton

Álvarez was in line as mandatory challenger for the winner of the vacant WBC light middleweight title bout between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito, however, Pacquiao who was the victor, wrote to the WBC stating he had no intention of defending the title and it was declared vacant. On 5 March 2011, Álvarez defeated European welterweight champion Matthew Hatton via unanimous decision, for the vacant WBC light middleweight belt. The bout was televised on HBO and took place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Álvarez was docked a point in the seventh round, which was uniformly scored 9–9, for hitting after the break. All three ringside judges scored the bout 119–108 in favor of Álvarez, who landed 47% of his 626 punches, including 53% of his power shots. Hatton connected with just 25% of his 546 total blows in a fight that averaged 1.4 million viewers on HBO.

Álvarez vs. Rhodes

Álvarez successfully defended his newly awarded WBC title against #4 ranked Ring light middleweight and current European light middleweight champion Ryan Rhodes. Álvarez defeated Rhodes via TKO in the twelfth round on 18 June 2011, in Guadalajara, Jalisco. The fight averaged 1.6 million viewers on HBO.

Álvarez vs. Gómez

On 17 September 2011, Álvarez successfully defended that same WBC title against The Contender competitor Alfonso Gómez at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, winning via TKO in the sixth round. Gómez won a majority of the first five rounds after Álvarez knocked him down in the first round. Álvarez was looking for one shot and got it in the sixth round when he backed Gómez up with a right hand. He then followed up with a flurry to get the referee to jump in and stop the fight.