Few active fighters in the world of boxing, if any, have accumulated the calibre of names that are on the record of Canelo Alvarez, facing a plethora of current and future Hall-of-Famer’s across his 19-year career. Now, Canelo has opened up on whom he believes was his toughest fight to date and also on who the strongest puncher that he has shared the ring with was.
Canelo debuted in the sport at just 16-years-old and build up a record of 20-0-1 before he turned 18-years-old. In his 37th contest, Canelo finally challenged and won a world title when he outpointed Matthew Hatton for the WBC super-welterweight title and hasn’t looked back, with 25 of his 28 bouts from that point onwards being for world honours.
During that time, Canelo faced a plethora of high-profile names and has accomplished all there is to achieve; becoming a four-division world champion, an undisputed champion, sharing an iconic trilogy with a fellow great in Gennadiy Golovkin, and becoming that big of a superstar that his name transcends the sport.
However, when it came to his toughest fight to date, Canelo Alvarez told the ‘Million Dollaz Worth of Game’ podcast that the mental strain of taking on the mastermind that is Floyd Mayweather Jr. surpasses the difficulty of tackling any of his other opponents.
“I have a lot of them [tough fights], but I think that my most difficult fight was with Floyd Mayweather. My hardest fight was with Golovkin maybe.”
Meanwhile, Canelo established himself as one of the most powerful forces and, perhaps more importantly, ruthless finishers in the game – often coming out on top when challengers dared to exchange in the pocket with a thanks to his granite chin. Although, Canelo has a surprise name up his sleeve when quizzed on who hit him the hardest.
“Everybody will say Golovkin [was the hardest puncher] but I never felt that bad [power] like [James] Kirkland. He hit me on the arms, and it felt like rocks, I said ‘I need to finish this guy right now because he is going to beat me around the ring for the whole fight’.”
Canelo and Kirkland went to war in 2015 in a short-lived affair as Alvarez dropped the Texan on three occasions in as many rounds, until the ‘Mandingo Warrior’ was unable to beat the count. That defeat was followed by a four-year hiatus from Kirkland, who returned with consecutive wins before a first-round stoppage defeat to Juan Montiel in December 2020 and he is yet to fight since.
As far as punchers go, Alvarez’s September 14th opponent, Edgar Berlanga, could soon find himself amongst the likes of Kirkland in that very conversation. The Puerto Rican is naturally big for the 168lb weight and won by first-round stoppage in all of his first 16 professional contests, although he has registered just one knockout in the six outings since as he progressed through the levels.
Boxing Social is now on WhatsApp! Join our channel by clicking here and getting all the latest boxing news direct to your phone.