power puncher
Gennady Golovkin bloodied, Billy Joe Saunders’ broken eye, James Kirkland confused – What Canelo’s opponents look like before and after fighting him with Dmitry Bivol next
Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez is back in the ring this weekend for his date with destiny as he seeks to add the light-heavyweight title to his super-middleweight belts.
Dmitry Bivol is the formidable figure in the way this time as he aims to make it 58-1-2.
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Having fought professionally since the age of 15, Canelo has fallen in love with boxing in a way most fighters can only dream of. Regularly turning up to press conferences in silk pyjamas, the Mexican defies Marvin Hagler’s famous analogy about wealth and hunger.
The 31-year-old has fought with incredible regularity to clean out the super-middleweight division. It says a lot that the only man to ever beat Canelo is Floyd Mayweather, widely regarded as one of the greatest.
Since then, he has left a host of fighters broken, bruised and bloodied. When you step in the ring with Canelo, you don't often come out looking the same as these men discovered.
James Kirkland - 9th May, 2015
Perhaps the finest example of Canelo’s devastating power came against Kirkland in 2015 at super-welterweight.
Just two weeks on from the lucrative, albeit tedious, bout between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, Canelo needed just three rounds to spin Kirkland’s head round en route to victory.
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At the age of 31, Kirkland’s time at the top had likely passed him by as legal troubles, time in prison and trainer problems stunted his potential growth.
Kirkland was dropped in the first round and was left with a seriously bloodied nose. The onslaught continued into the third, and ultimately final round when a sneaky right hand chopped the American down and the knockout instantly went viral.
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Amir Khan - 7th May, 2016
Billed as ‘Power vs Speed’, Khan’s brave attempt at trying to jump two weight classes and take out one of the biggest stars in boxing backfired big time.
Having spent the better part of two years trying to coax either Mayweather or Pacquiao into fighting him, the Brit decided to roll the dice against Canelo.
For five rounds, his pedigree and pace even appeared to have bemused the young Mexican, but a right hand from hell shattered Khan’s jaw and he lay prone on the canvas for several minutes as medics attended the scene.
Ever the consummate professional, Canelo did not celebrate, instead dropping to his knees to tend to the Olympian as he slowly regained consciousness. It was as if he was praying his rival would get to his feet quickly.
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Gennady Golovkin II - 15th September, 2018
The first fight between Canelo and Golovkin was a malicious, yet magnificent display of middleweight championship boxing.
Just 12 months later and with the intensity certainly shifted thanks to an errant drugs test and several verbal spars, Canelo switched game plans and went for the fearsome puncher from Kazakhstan.
If the Mexican was perhaps a tad fortunate to leave Las Vegas with a draw in the first contest, he left the rematch with part of his soul in the ring and every drop of blood and sweat was justified.
A thrilling fight which ebbed and flowed, Golovkin has arguably never been the same since after the war of attrition.
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Callum Smith - 19th December, 2020
Fighting back up at super-middleweight, Canelo was expected to encounter some lengthy problems against Smith considering he was seven inches shorter and giving up seven inches in reach.
Yet the Liverpudlian was soundly beaten for the first time in his professional career in a lopsided defeat which ended painfully.
Although he went the full 12 rounds, Smith was battered throughout and even sustained a nasty bicep injury which he insisted Canelo targeted during the fight.
"In the 12th round, he looked at the swelling and laughed and asked, 'Is it sore?' It's experience on his behalf. It completely took away probably my best shot."
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Billy Joe Saunders - 8th May, 2021
Seemingly through no fault of his own, Saunders was avoided by some of the biggest names at both 160lbs and 168lbs during the peak of his career.
By the time he secured a fight with Canelo in May 2021, he had not fought at the upper echelons of either division for a sustained period of time and his boxing prowess proved no match for the Mexican’s power.
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In the eighth round, Canelo landed a monstrous uppercut which shattered the Brit’s eye in three places and he told talkSPORT he instantly felt the damage.
Saunders was forced to undergo emergency surgery to repair both the cheekbone and the eye socket.
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