Saul “Canelo” Alvarez Is Easily The Best Boxer On Earth
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is flat-out insane. He has claimed three of four belts in under a calendar year, all while not being a natural super middleweight. His accomplishments put him far above the average professional boxer. In fact, they rival the achievements of some of the greatest boxers ever.
Canelo Alvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders
Alvarez put his WBC and WBA super welterweight titles on the line on Saturday night against Billy Joe Saunders and, to nobody’s surprise, he walked out of AT&T Stadium with another belt, the WBO super middleweight title. The fight between Alvarez and Saunders was close until it wasn’t. Experts were divided on who was winning, with some giving Alvarez a one round lead over Saunders and some giving Saunders the lead instead, but everything went south for Saunders in the 8th round. A brutal uppercut to the right eye courtesy of Alvarez appeared to fracture Saunders’ orbital bone, forcing Saunders to “retire on the stool”.
The official scorecards at the end of the fight were heavily in favor of Alvarez. Ahead (78-74), (78-74) and (77-75) when Saunders’ corner ended the fight, Alvarez out-landed Saunders in both power punches and overall strikes. Had the fight gone into the 9th round, Alvarez would have almost certainly knocked out Saunders.
History In The Making?
Alvarez unifying all four belts would be an incredible feat. Although the four-belt era began in 2004, only two men have ever unified the WBO, WBC, IBF, and WBA titles in any weight division. The first man to do it was middleweight Bernard Hopkins. The second man, Jermain Taylor, took the undisputed middleweight crown from Hopkins in July of 2005.
If Alvarez fights Caleb Plant in a reasonable time frame, which is highly likely, he will have the chance to unify all four super middleweight belts in under nine months.
What’s Next For Canelo Alvarez?
What’s next for Canelo? First on his agenda: fight Caleb Plant and unify the belts. Following that, who knows? Perhaps he goes back down to super welterweight and reminds the world of his dominance there as well. Maybe the trilogy with Gennady Golovkin runs to completion. Regardless, Canelo, only 30 years old, will be the pound-for-pound king for a long time.
