Welcome back fight fans to another video here on The Fight Game. Canelo Alvarez is a boxer
who perhaps lays the best claim to being called the
best boxer in boxing today. With multiple elite-level wins on his record, you have to
wonder, is he the pound for pound best? You may hate Canelo, you may love Canelo,
but either way he must be respected. In my opinion he has the second best resume in Boxing,
coming only second to the legendary Manny Pacquiao. But Canelo has already asserted
his declaration into national legend. To see the last time we saw Mexican boxers
as great we have to wind back the decades to when Chavez was reigning. In
the lighter weights we also saw Ricardo Lopez collect 51 victories and zero losses, a record
better than Floyd Mayweather's. Mexico has a rich history of warrior boxers, and
Canelo likely wont be appreciated until long after his career has ended. But Greatness
is not measured by records, greatness is best measured by how well an individual responds
to the happenings in life that appear to be totally
unfair, unreasonable, and undeserved. Canelo born not with a silver spoon in his mouth
has transcended his conceptual limitations. In a sport where the closest of battles are
seen at the top level, Canelo seems to be in a league of his own.
Cotto, defeated. Chavez Junior, defeated.
Golovkin, defeated. Jacobs, defeated.
Kovalev, defeated.
A world champion in 4 different weight divisions. A global icon. He's a destructive counter-puncher
with a touch of defensive wizardry. His head movement is unrivaled in the sport of boxing,
in recent years he has defeated everyone that's been put in front of him. He's displayed that
he can box on the front foot, and on the back foot. He's
one of the most improved boxers of the last 5 years. In recent fights he hasn't only looked
good, but he's looked invincible. So far his career
has been nothing short of historic with many world titles to his name. Like all careers
it's had it's ups and it's downs, it's drama and it's controversy,
it's glamour and it's glory, it's knockouts and it's skills, it's wars and it's battles,
it's almost as if we're seeing history being written right in
front of our very own eyes. He brings his best self to the ring every time he fights
on the grand stage, and sometimes a little drama too. The support
of his fans is loud and clear everytime there's a Canelo show on in town. He fights for himself,
but for the people too. His style consists of lightning
fast combinations, calculated defensive counter-attacks and a strong ability to persevere. He's strong,
he's powerful, he's in his prime and his career
is on a high right now, he's collected a strong momentum in the last few years and at this
moment in time he looks pretty much indestructible.
I guess that leaves us with the question, can anyone beat Canelo Alvarez? Is he the
most unstoppable boxer in boxing today? Welcome to this
video here on The Fight Game where we take a brief look at the accomplishments of Mexican
Superstar Canelo Alvarez.
So where do we start, with a career of over 56 fights it is perhaps overwhelming to condense
his entire career into one video. But what I can do, is briefly
take a look at the story of his career, taking a look at how his story unfolded and point
out some highs and lows. It all began in Mexico, Canelo started boxing
at the age of 13, then dropped out of school to focus full-time on his passion. His pro
career began close to his home town in fact. It was October of 2005 and
the future world champion Canelo Alvarez would make his professional debut. He was 15 years
old here. It's not uncommon to see this in Mexico as the amateur division
of boxing is not established very well there. From this very rare footage we can already
see the inception of his boxing style, strong momentum-driven rotation in
the shoulders, towards the middle of the fight we even saw him rest against the ropes, which
is something Canelo does to this very day. We even see him slip under
the jab and return with a right uppercut, which is still one of Canelo's favorite combinations
to throw on the ropes. He won of course after a strong powerful
combination to stop the fight.
Canelo would fight 21 more times in Mexico, and amazingly at such a young age he managed
to not take a single loss as he rose through the ranks, along with that he
transformed from a local hero, into a national sensation. Canelo had such great character,
and that was greatly appreciated by the Mexican people. He continued to train
with Eddy and Chepo Reynoso in Mexico, working on his skills on the bag and in the ring.
Canelo didn't need a high-tech facility to become great, all he needed was
a good team, hard work and dedication to the craft. At this time he was a prospect in Mexican
boxing with only dreams of achieving greatness, Chepo believed that
only Canelo defined his own limitations and believed that one day he'll be one of the
sports pound for pound best.
As he went on we saw him control his composure more, we saw little hints of his head movement,
Canelo's stance ended up being narrow in the legs but square in the upper
body. While boxers like Mike Tyson have a wide stance in both the legs and upperbody,
and boxers like Mayweather have a narrow stance, Canelo uses a mixture of both.
He loves to make his opponents miss and pay, he's a defensive counter puncher, but his
counters generally come in combinations and not singular punches. The narrow foot
positioning allows Canelo to push off the back leg when he counters, therefor increasing
the swiftness of the attack. If you're not sure what I mean by this, look at how
Mayweather sets up the pull-counter, he extends his back leg so when he throws the back hand
he can push off the leg to speed up the movement of the counter. The wide
positioning of his upper body allows him to punch with good rotation, therefor increasing
power with torque.
Canelo's first world title shot came in 2011 when he took on Matthew Hatton for the vacant
WBC super-welterweight title. Super-welterweight is the weight
division of 154 pounds. With red hair and a face with freckles, Canelo was not your
typical Mexican looking boxer. Chepo Reynoso gave Canelo his nickname,
but above all else it was his skills that mattered the most. Canelo had already established
a good name for himself with American fans when he knocked out
Carlos Baldomir and stopped José Cotto. But this was a special fight as it was his first
for a major world title, and he was watched by boxing fanatics as many
speculated that this young teenage Canelo could be one of the sports brightest prospects.
As far as tests go, Canelo passed with ease. Canelo dominated the
fight from start to finish, at this time Canelo was a typical Mexican warrior, standing toe-to-toe
in the center of the ring to exchange combinations. He
was on the front foot most of the fight, pushing the action. Canelo's youth and power was too
much for Hatton to handle, although the fight went 12 rounds.
Canelo won the WBC belt and defended it 3 times before putting it on the line against
Shane Mosley. In the mosley fight we saw Canelo's head movement improve,
although back then he wasn't as good as he is now. What impressed me the most about the
Mosley fight was his ability to remain composed under attack. This was
Canelo's first real high-profile fight, many fighters can be like a deer in headlights,
but Canelo showed up with sharp counter-punching. Canelo would cover up
with a high-guard and look for openings in Mosley's defence, and then he would return
fire with fast and destructive combinations. Canelo would defend his belt
successfully and collect a great victory, proving to the boxing world that he was no
longer a prospect, but a reigning champion.
From here onward Canelo would fight in the United States. Canelo's profile was increasing
fast, and Mayweather wanted to fight him. However Canelo's team would
insist on gaining more experience before facing Mayweather. and instead opted for two fights,
Josesito Lopez and a unification fight with Austin Trout. He would
defeat Lopez by TKO, and it was in this fight where we saw Canelo's love for body-punching
arise. Then he would defeat Trout by decision, but dropped him with a
great right hand during the fight. We really saw Canelo's head movement evolve in the Trout
fight, a lot of people like to say he learned defensive moves from the
Mayweather fight but he was always defensively capable before ever facing Mayweather.
Canelo now felt ready to face Mayweather at just 23 years old. The fight took place and
it was one of the biggest fights seen in boxing history. It was the master-boxer
versus the ferocious-puncher. Those who thought Canelo would win argued that he would simply
be too young and strong, and those who thought Mayweather would win thought
he would simply be too defensively-skilled. This was Canelo Alvarez's first, and only
ever loss. Mayweather was just too good, he took Canelo to the school of boxing with
astute counter-punching from safe and defensive positions. Although Mayweather is perhaps
one of the best to ever do it, skill wise, so losing to Mayweather is something
he shouldn't dwell on. Many would love to see a fight with both of them in their prime
as Canelo was so young and inexperienced when he took the fight. Canelo has been
pretty open about how he'd love to avenge that one loss on his record. But then again,
this is boxing, losses are part of the journey.
After his high-profile loss Canelo would begin his comeback. He defeated Angulo very easily,
and then took on Erislandy Lara. Lara was a defensive boxer too, which would have
been a very dangerous risk for Canelo style wise. However his body-punching and aggressiveness
would win him the fight by decision. Canelo deserves massive respect for fighting
all opponents out there, no matter their style.
In the following years Canelo would mature, and in turn would fill out into his frame.
He took on James Kirkland, who he beat down over the course of 3 rounds before knocking
him out with a crazy right hook. Canelo set the right hook up with a touch to the body,
lowering his hands and leaving an opening for the hook to land. Then he defeated Cotto,
this was the first fight where we really saw Canelo
much larger than his opponent, and yet he outboxed Cotto who was very experienced. Then
he took on Amir Khan, one of the sports fastest boxers. After a few sequences of successful
attacks in the fight, Canelo knocked Khan out cold with a straight right hand.
But in this time the boxing world wanted only one fight, the Golovkin fight. But first it
was Liam Smith, Canelo decided to take it easy in this fight by resting against
the ropes, getting that experience in a real fight is valuable. Then he knocked him out
with a liver-shot.
After that it was an all-mexican showdown with Chavez Junior, Canelo showed that he
was most definitely the best Mexican Boxer as it was such a one-sided beatdown. It wasn't
even close, Canelo looked incredibly comfortable
in with Chavez and he seemed to land at will. After this, it was finally the Golovkin fight.
Canelo, now a fully-fledged middleweight, aimed to silence all those doubters who said
he was scared of Triple G. Canelo boxed better than most expected, he might not have done
enough to win but he showed that he's at the elite level of the middleweight division.
That fight ended in a draw. However it was really in the rematch where we saw the middleweight-beast
version of Canelo. This time around Canelo didn't go on the back foot,
he stood in the centre of the ring and gave it to Golovkin. He won, and although the fight
was close again, this time he had done enough to appear the better boxer of the two.
Canelo then tested the waters at the super-middleweight division of 168 pounds when he took on Rocky
Fielding. Canelo, in one of his easiest fights ever, defeated Fielding with
bodyshots. He then went down to middleweight to face Daniel Jacobs, who was arguably the
rank number 3 middleweight at the time. Jacobs is a brilliant boxer, this fight was
risky for Canelo, but it definitely didn't seem like that in the fight as Canelo completely
out-boxed the boxer. He showed good footwork too, maybe the best we've ever seen in
his career, and along with that he showed that he's probably got the best headmovement
out of everyone in the sport of Boxing. Canelo was looking invincible, every person put
in front of Canelo met the fate of a loss. We also will likely never see Canelo get knocked
out because of this genius trick he does when an opponent lands a powerful shot, he
glances his head with the punch to deflect all the damage. Canelo's arsenal of weaponry
is vast, he uses tricks like using his elbows during fights to impose his will.
People asked who could possibly beat him now, and Canelo decided to take an incredible risky
route of moving not one, but two weight divisions up to fight Kovalev at 175 pounds.
Kovalev was so much bigger, and many said that if Jacobs or Golovkin couldn't beat Canelo,
maybe Kovalev could.
Canelo boxed very cautiously in this fight, but he actually ended up knocking Kovalev
out-cold. He set the shot up with a distracting left hook to the body, but then changed the
trajectory half way through to the head. This is a brilliant move Canelo uses in his fights.
The initial trajectory gets his opponents to drop their hands thinking a body shot
is coming, and just at the last second he changes it to the head which is consequently
open. The finishing shot was a straight right when Kovalev was stunned from the left hook.
I must admit when Canelo knocked out Kovalev last November it left me asking, is there
even a boxer out there that can defeat Canelo. It's not out of this world to say he looks
unbeatable. Many thought Kovalev was a dangerous fight for Canelo, and while it did pose a
risk, Canelo silenced all critics when he won in a fashion that's truly unquestionable.
So I suppose that leaves us with the question, is Canelo Alvarez unstoppable. Is there anyone
out there that can actually beat him. So far Canelo has had an incredible career, he's
definitely a future hall-of-famer, and at this moment in time he's in his prime. It's
not often we get to see someone with the experience and history of Canelo Alvarez fight the best
of the best, he deserves massive respect for fighting all styles out there and for giving
fight fans the fights that they want. If you'd like to see more videos from us on Canelo
Alvarez let us know. Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this video consider giving
it a like as it helps us grow the channel. We'll see you on the next video here on The
Fight Game.