Saúl Álvarez

Biography of Saúl Álvarez

Santos Saúl Alvarez Barragán, known in the world of boxing as Canelo Alvarez, was born on July 18, 1990 in San Agustín, Guadalajara, Mexico. His nickname was assigned by his manager, José “Chepo” Reynoso. At five years old, Canelo moved with his family to Juanacatlán. His decision to dedicate himself to boxing came from his brother Rigoberto, who is also a professional boxer. At 13 years old, Canelo began training boxing and quickly participated in tournaments.

2004 – beginnings in boxing

In 2004, Canelo won the silver medal in the National Juvenile Championship in Sinaloa, and a year later, he obtained the gold medal in the 2005 Youth Olympics in Tuxtla Gutiérrez. With an amateur record of 44 wins, several by KO, and two losses, Canelo entered the professional ring in 2005, making his debut at the Chololo Larios Arena in Tonalá, Jalisco, at just 15 years old. He won by technical KO in the fourth round.

2008 – welterweight title of the North American Boxing Federation

Over time, Canelo increased his skill in the ring. In 2008, he obtained the welterweight

title from the Latin American Federation of Professional Boxing Commissions, recognized by the World Boxing Association (WBA), by defeating boxer Carlos Adán Jerez. He also participated in the Scotiabank Forum in Mexico City, where he surprised the audience by knocking out Tony “Mazatleco” Fitch, thus becoming welterweight champion of the North American Boxing Federation (NABF).

Latin welterweight title of the World Boxing Organization

That same year in Zapopan, Jalisco, Canelo knocked out Dominican Euri Gonzalez in a long eleven round fight. With this victory, Canelo won the Latin welterweight title of the World Boxing Organization. In 2010, he had the opportunity to debut as a boxer within Golden Boy Promotions, facing José Miguel Cotto, covering the fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Shane Mosley in Las Vegas. Canelo Alvarez won by technical KO in the ninth round.

Canelo Alvarez, one of the great boxers of Mexico

With less than 30 years old, this Mexican boxer has conquered the world of boxing, captivating fans all over the world with his action-packed, charismatic and brave fighting style when facing big rivals like Kazakh Golovkin. His figure has been admired and compared to great Mexican

boxers like Barrera, Morales, Sanchez and Chavez. The most relevant moment of his career was when he defeated Mathew “Magic” Hatton for the CMB Super Welterweight World Champion title in March 2011.

Since then, Canelo has defended the title against Ryan Rhodes and obtained stoppage victories over Alfonso Gomez and former world champion Kermit Cintron. He also had a fight against veteran Sugar Shane Mosley, for 12 rounds. The victory over Mosley led to the fight against Josesito Lopez on September 15, 2012, in which he knocked out Lopez before finishing the fight with a technical KO in the fifth round.

2013 – World Champion, fight with Floyd “Money” Mayweather

Canelo imposed his dominance by unanimously defeating the AMB Super Welterweight World Champion, Austin Trout, in front of 39,000 fans at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, making him a world champion. On September 14, 2013, Alvarez faced Floyd “Money” Mayweather. This fight was considered the biggest of the year and the highest-grossing in history, and it was the second-highest rated boxing event on television in Mexico.

Since then, Canelo has won several championships, defeating boxers such as Alfredo “Perro” Angulo, James “Mandingo Warrior” Kirkland, Erislandy Lara, James Kirkland, and Liam Smith. The confidence Canelo developed in his talent was such that he dared to challenge champion Gennady Golovkin on camera.

Fight with Gennady Golovkin.

On June 5, the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas was announced as the location of the fight. In the early rounds, the Kazakh imposed himself, but then Canelo showed a great ability to evade Gennady’s punches. In the end, the result was a split decision draw; this was the second in Saúl Alvarez’s career and the first in Gennady Golovkin’s. This generated great questioning from boxers and sports businessmen. Definitely, Canelo was able to measure up to the great boxer Gennady.