Santos Saul Álvarez Barragán, better known as Canelo, which translates to ‘cinnamon’ for his fiery red hair, has spiced up the boxing scene since his debut. Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1990, this pugilist has clinched world championships across four weight divisions, making him a staple in the Hall of Fame pantry. Canelo unified titles in three divisions and claimed lineal championships in two, notably overpowering Miguel Cotto in 2015 for the WBC, Ring, and lineal middleweight crowns. Outside the ring, Canelo’s life is just as sweet, sharing it with his two kids, Emily Cinnamon Alvarez and Mía Ener Álvarez, and his wife, Fernanda Gómez, since 2021. According to Forbes, Canelo is worth at least $275 million!
By Listen: Gennady Golovkin has taken the boxing world by storm over the past couple years. Many fans and pundits alike rank GGG very high and often #1 in their pound for pound rankings. It isn’t hard to see what the hype is about.
Golovkin has accumulated 31 knockouts in 34 bouts, which equates to a knockout percentage of over 90. Comparatively Manny Pacquiao’s knockout percentage is only 84%, which of course is nothing to sneeze at, but lower than Golovkin’s higher percentage.
By Francisco Gurrola: The thought and imagination of a potential clash between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin will come to closure soon. It is a matter of time before these two warriors face each other insde the ring. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar de la Hoya has chosen to let the fight marinate a little longer before it takes place in late 2016. The decision makes a lot of economical sense, as business people their job is to make the most money out of their fighters; this is how you do it.
Gennady Golovkin an excellent fighter with great skills and power has shocked the boxing world and has made his name known and spoken of by many followers and fans of boxing. “GGG” is an exciting fighter that moves very well inside the ring, he closes the gaps between him and his opponent and goes in for the kill.
(Photo Credit: Alex Menendez – HoganPhotos/Golden Boy Promotions) By Dan Ambrose: Middleweight Gabriel Rosado (22-9, 13 KOs) made it be known last Saturday that he would like to be considered as the next opponent for WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) for his voluntary defense of his WBC title on May 7th.
Rosado won a 10 round unanimous decision over Joshua Clottey (39-6, 22 KOs) on the undercard of the Luis Ortiz vs. Bryant Jennings fight card on HBO Latino. That was a fine scalp that Rosado added to his collection.
(Photo credit: World Boxing Council) By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. says he does not think IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) is a good fighter at all, and he feels that WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) will likely still beat him in their fight in 2016.
Floyd Sr. says that Golovkin has slow hand speed, and he was not impressed with how he looked in his fight against Willie Monroe Jr. earlier this year in May. Golovkin won the fight by a 6th round knockout, but Monroe had his moments in the fight in landing some nice shots in rounds 3 through 5.
By Markus McCourtus: Boxing as a sport is one of the hardest sports to compete in. The high level of fitness and skill required to compete at a decent level deserves respect, the mental conditioning required is also to be admired.
To prove yourself as a champion in such a sport is tough and requires elite skill and dedication, as to be champion you have to defeat the best (or at least one of the best) guy in the division. Or do you?
At the minute in the boxing world there are 17 weight classes, each weight class generally has 4 recognized world title holders, even more if you include the interim title holders and super and regular title holders, but to keep this simple let’s keep it to 4. So we generally have 68 world title holders.
By Yannis Mihanos: In many of his past fights, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) appears to have had a weight advantage over his opponents. Often times, Canelo has looked like the bigger and stronger guy over his smaller opposition.
Canelo dishes punishment with his power punches and demoralizes fighters appearing unfazed from their attacks and punches. His last victim was WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, looked in front of him half the size of the 25-year-old Canelo.
By Dan Ambrose: Earlier this week, the World Boxing Council ruled that WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) can take a voluntary defense before facing his #1 WBC mandatory challenger Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) in the second half of 2016 as part of a mandatory defense.
The delay in the title defense by Canelo is driven in part by the desire to let his fight against Golovkin marinate so that it can be bigger than it would be if it were to take place next. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez understands why Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions want the Canelo-Golovkin fight to marinate.
By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Freddie Roach believes that Gennady Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) will beat WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) if the fight takes place in the future. Roach thinks that Golovkin could be the No.1 pound-for-pound fighter in the sport today, but he just can’t prove it because there are so few fighters that want to face him right now.
Roach thinks that Golovkin’s promoters at K2 Promotions wasted a lot of time with his career by choosing to keep in Germany fighting for many years after he turned pro. It wasn’t until 2010 that Golovkin started fighting in the U.S off and on.
(Photo credit: World Boxing Council) By Dan Ambrose: Unless we see WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) pulling the nuclear option of vacating his title, we’ll be seeing a big mega-fight between him and interim WBC middleweight champ Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (34-0, 31 KOs) in the second half of 2016. This has been confirmed by a representative from Golovkin’s team. Vacating his WBC title won’t hurt Canelo, because he has a ton of casual boxing fans that wouldn’t be too bothered by him giving up the belt. They just want to see him fight and win. Any title that Canelo might have is secondary and less important.
They met with the World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman last Monday and he got an agreement from the two fighter’s promoters Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions and Eric Gomez of Golden Boy Promotions that the fighters would both take voluntary fights in the first quarter of next year before facing each other in late 2016, likely in September.
(Photo credit: World Boxing Council) By Dan Ambrose: IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s next fight will be taking place in March or April rather than February or March, according to his promoter Tom Loeffler. It’s unclear why the delay, but it’s likely due to the time spent by Team Golovkin’s management in trying to setup a fight against WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (46-1-1, 36 KOs).
They’re been working on the negotiations for a month now, and it was only today that the World Boxing Council decided to let Canelo fight a voluntary defense next May rather than face Golovkin.