Saúl Álvarez
Santos Saúl Álvarez Barragán (Spanish pronunciation; born July 18, 1990), commonly known as "Canelo" Álvarez, is a Mexican professional boxer.He is the current lineal, The Ring, and WBC middleweight champion, as well as a former WBC, WBA (Regular), and The Ring light middleweight champion. He is currently ranked the best pound-for-pound boxer by BoxRec.
Beginnings
In an interview, Álvarez explained that he was born in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, but his family was at the time living in San Agustín de Tlajomulco de Zúñiga. At the age of five, his family moved to their current home of Juanacatlán, Jalisco.Growing up on his family's farm, he learned horseback riding, which he continues today.Álvarez is the youngest of eight children, seven of them boys; all of his brothers also became professional boxers.Among his brothers are welterweight boxers Ramón Álvarez, Ricardo Álvarez and former Interim WBA World Champion, Rigoberto Álvarez.\"Canelo" in Spanish is the masculine word for cinnamon, which is a common nickname for people with red hair.
Professional career
Álvarez turned professional at 15, shortly after his championship at the Junior Nationals, because his trainers at the time, father-and-son team Chepo and Eddy Reynoso, were unable to find suitable junior opponents for him. In his first 19 months as a professional, he knocked out 11 of his 13 documented opponents, all of whom were significantly older. However, the elder Reynoso stated in 2013 that Álvarez had fought 10 more times in that span, winning all 10 by knockout, but that these fights (all in small venues in the Mexican state of Nayarit) were so poorly documented that it was not worth the trouble to seek to have the record corrected.Álvarez' third official bout of his career was a win over the now current IBF Lightweight Champion, Miguel Vázquez on January 20, 2006, at his home town of Guadalajara, Jalisco. On June 28, 2008, Álvarez defeated Miguel Vázquez again in a rematch. He also made world history in that fight card when all of his six brothers fought on the same night, Canelo being the youngest.The only downside was that three of them failed to win their pro debuts. The other four more experienced brothers won. On March 6, 2010, he got a crushing third round knockout over Brian Camechis in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas. Álvarez defeated Jose Miguel Cotto on May 1, 2010, on the Floyd Mayweather vs. Shane Mosley undercard in the MGM Grand Garden Arena on HBO PPV to retain his NABF Welterweight title.
