LAS VEGAS – The years pile up quickly, like a stack of photos to be looked back upon with memories and thoughts of those times accompanying the visions.
As Canelo Alvarez, now 34, appeared Wednesday at another Las Vegas news conference to tout his Saturday night bout against Brooklyn’s Edgar Berlanga, his journey from being a 19-year-old getting rocked by a Jose Miguel Cotto punch in his Las Vegas debut to his far-greater stature as a four-division and three-belt super-middleweight champion has produced a whirlwind of snapshots to flash back to.
This is Alvarez’s 19th Las Vegas bout, a showdown he enters as a prohibitive (-1600) betting favorite against a 27-year-old unbeaten challenger likely hitching his hopes to the “puncher’s chance” that Cotto executed but failed to fully capitalize upon all those years ago.
In looking back on all of these bouts that I’ve watched mostly from ringside, it seems time to rank them in a top-10 order: Canelo’s best Las Vegas fights.
We, of course, threw out the one-sided drubbing Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., the awful trilogy bout against formerly fierce rival Gennadiy Golovkin and couldn’t find room for his 2012 victory over Hall of Famer Shane Mosley under a main event with two more Hall of Famers he’d end up fighting, Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto.
Let the countdown begin:
10) Alvarez wins split-decision (117-111, 115-113, 113-115) over Erislandy Lara, July 12, 2014: Lara, who defends his WBA middleweight belt against former two-division champion Danny Garcia in Saturday’s co-main event, says he still believes he won the bout that was decided by the most narrow of margins. This bout spoke to Alvarez’s willingness to take complex fights given that it occurred less than a year from his lopsided defeat by majority decision to Mayweather.
9) Alvarez loses majority decision (117-111, 116-112, 114-114) to Floyd Mayweather Jr., Sept. 14, 2013): Hell-bent to participate in this fight after a signature 154-pound title win over tricky left-handed Austin Trout in San Antonio, Alvarez, at just age 23, met Mayweather in the second bout of his massive six-fight deal with Showtime. Alvarez even agreed to come in two pounds under the weight limit to land the bout he sought as an ultimate testing ground he was hoping would serve as a career springboard. It was, but he was outclassed in the session as Mayweather picked him apart before ultimately praising Alvarez for delivering some of the hardest punches he’d ever absorbed. The even scorecard of judge C.J. Ross is legendary, for all the wrong reasons.
8) Alvarez wins unanimous decision (117-110, 116-111, 115-112) over Jaime Munguia, May 4, 2024: I may be suffering from primary-recency here, but this was an entertaining scrap with the younger challenger from Tijuana bringing the fight to the older countryman before Alvarez began to dissect Munguia the way that Mayweather treated him a decade earlier. Alvarez said he could’ve finished Munguia in the 12th round, but spared him because he didn’t seek to embarrass or discourage a fighter who still has super-middleweight title aspirations.
7) Alvarez wins unanimous decision (118-110, 117-111, 119-109) over Miguel Cotto, Nov. 21, 2015: Alvarez told me last month that he felt this victory at Mandalay Bay over the Hall of Famer from Puerto Rico was the threshold bout that moved him toward superstardom. Alvarez repeatedly beat the game but aging Cotto to the punch, and Cotto fought only twice more after this loss that followed defeats at the hands of Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather. The victory intensified the clamor for Canelo to engage Golovkin for the middleweight title, something then-promoter Oscar De La Hoya was unwilling to do.
6) Alvarez wins unanimous decision (116-112, 115-113, 115-113) over Daniel Jacobs, May 4, 2019: A sublime defensive performance complemented by superb boxing paced an increasingly confident and developing Alvarez over the respected Jacobs on this night at T-Mobile Arena. The elusive head movement and the discouraging power by Alvarez revealed the full package illustrating why the redhead from Guadalara had elevated to become pound-for-pound king.
5) Alvarez knocks out Amir Khan, sixth round, May 7, 2016: In T-Mobile Arena’s first boxing main event, Alvarez fulfilled expectations by crushing the naturally lighter but daring boxer Khan, who led on the scorecards until the moment of that dismantling right hand that sent the Brit unconscious to the canvas. Yes, most predicted the bigger Alvarez would have his way that night, but the highlight-reel blow was a defining addition to his career library.
4) Alvarez loses unanimous decision (115-113, 115-113, 115-113) to Dmitrii Bivol, May 7, 2022: Following a suggestion that he would fight for a cruiserweight belt, Alvarez returned to light-heavyweight after winning a belt there in 2019. He found out against Russia’s Bivol that he had bit off more than he could chew, that weight classes indeed matter. Bivol’s boxing skill allowed him to pepper Alvarez with neck-snapping blows, and although the judges were careless in awarding Alvarez each of the first four rounds, they quickly ran to the light and delivered Bivol the justice he deserved while performing as one of the few to be so unyielding to Alvarez’s best punches.
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3) Alvarez draw (118-110, 113-115, 114-114) with Gennadiy Golovkin, Sept. 16, 2017: The buildup to this fight was spectacular, as the two fighters surprisingly announced their union in the T-Mobile ring after Alvarez laid waste to Chavez Jr. Most ringside observers had the fight scored narrowly for Golovkin in a bout where each proud champion endured the other’s best punches. Golovkin trainer Abel Sanchez would later say Alvarez backed up too often, but avoiding a full firefight was fine in the tainted eyes of judge Adalaide Byrd, who scored the bout so grossly wide for Alvarez. The bout preceded Alvarez’s positive test result for Clenbuterol, which earned him a suspension.
2) Alvarez knocks out Sergey Kovalev, 11th round, Nov. 2, 2019: Becoming a four-division champion this night required Alvarez to endure some highly entertaining toe-to-toe action with the veteran champion from Russia. I recall having Kovalev ahead on my own scorecard as the bout reached the championship rounds. Myself and a writing colleague had apparently angered De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions with some things we wrote and they attempted to ban us from the arena that night before DAZN interceded and put both of us in two network ringside seats even closer to the ring, with a better view than the promoters. The beauty of that amazing vantage point arrived as Alvarez unleashed a right hand from hell to punctuate a vicious barrage, sending Kovalev crashing to the ropes and canvas.
1) Alvarez wins majority decision (114-114, 115-113, 115-113) over Golovkin, Sept. 15, 2018: In the rematch, Alvarez did anything but backpedal, answering trainer Sanchez’s taunts by bringing the fight to Golovkin in a bold strategy that clearly won him the necessary extra points on the scorecards and set up a highly lucrative deal with DAZN that ended prematurely due to legal strife with De La Hoya and the COVID layoff. The performance by Alvarez was everything his fans sought, a forward attack and resilience through the Golovkin power that had ruined so many others. The middleweight victory secured Alvarez, at 28, as the king of his sport, wearing a crown he expects to don again Saturday night.
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