Canelo vs. GGG: The rise of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez

On Saturday, Sept. 16, Saul Canelo Alvarez looks to increase the scale of his legacy when he challenges Gennady Golovkin for middleweight supremacy.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is a boxing superstar. He is 27 years old, a multiple world champion, and has defeated world-class fighters throughout his career. On Saturday, Canelo faces one of the biggest tests of his career when he challenges Gennady Golovkin for the middleweight title.

If Canelo emerges victorious, then he will become a mythical icon. If he’s unsuccessful, however, then he is reduced to a mere mortal in the eyes of many.

Canelo’s career to this point is the stuff that legends are made of. He has a stereotypical boxer’s background: poor kid who comes from nothing, rises up out of poverty and fights his way to being a boxing champion. Canelo’s background may be cliché, but his evolution as a boxer is miraculous.

The 27-year-old Alvarez is the youngest of eight children and three of his brothers are also professional boxers. He started his boxing training at the age of 13. He spent two years as an amateur and won the Mexican Junior Nationals in 2005 and this is where his story becomes unique.

Canelo turned professional in 2005 at the age of 15. When most kids were sophomores in high school, Canelo was fighting in the ring in Guadalajara, Mexico against grown men.

His early professional career acted as a continuation of his amateur career. He fought low-level opponents for the first two years of career and all of his opposition during this time had losing records. His trainers, Chepo and Eddy Reynoso, were smart to bring him up slowly.

Alvarez showed exceptional talent at a young age, but he was still just a raw kid learning. Although, he did learn at an accelerated pace. In 2006, at the age of 16, Canelo fought a total of seven fights in one year. He put in a lot of work in the early years of his career and continued to excel.

The Reynosos gradually increased the talent level of Canelo’s opposition and he continued to win fights. By 2007, Canelo was starting to fight boxers with winning records, by 2009 he was winning minor titles and in 2010, he started to compete against word-class talent like Carlos Baldomir.

Baldomir held the WBC welterweight title in 2006. Canelo knocked him out in round six.

Looking at the entirety of Canelo’s career, he has slowly but gradually stepped up his level of opposition and has evolved from a raw slugger into a tactical boxer. He has one blemish on his record and that came against Floyd Mayweather in 2013, but this loss was crucial in his development as a boxer.

Before Canelo met Mayweather in 2013, he cruised through the super welterweight division with ease. He conquered big names like Shane Mosely and Austin Trout and relied on his youth and power to win these fights. When he fought Mayweather, he was outboxed by a fighter with a much higher boxing I.Q.

Mayweather proved that young Canelo had a lot to learn if he wanted to be the best boxer in the world. Mayweather took Canelo to school and taught him that intelligence ultimately trumped power and muscle. He beat Canelo using his boxing wisdom, something that Canelo had yet to fully attain.

Mayweather won the bout by unanimous decision and he held Canelo to a 22 percent total punch connection rating according to CompuBox. Mayweather used precise counter-punching, defense, and pacing to beat Canelo.

Canelo was outclassed by Mayweather, but he would go on to prove that he learned from this fight. Since losing to Mayweather, Canelo has won all of his next seven fights with four knockouts.

Alvarez’s boxing skills have greatly improved since the Mayweather bout. He has added strength, size, and improved endurance. He looked gassed against Mayweather, but in his 12-round affair with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. this past May, Canelo threw 604 punches according to CompuBox (via BoxingScene.com) and looked like he could go another 12 rounds.

Next: 20 little-known facts about Canelo Alvarez

Canelo has come along way from the time he turned pro at the age of 15. He has matured into a tactical middleweight boxer who possesses one-punch knockout power. He’s beaten the likes of Miguel Cotto and Amir Khan, but he needs to defeat Gennady Golovkin if he wants to elevate himself from a great champion to a boxing legend. His rise to stardom has been impressive, but he needs to win Saturday if he wants to reach the pinnacle of the sport.