Canelo Alvarez is one of the greatest commercial draws in the history of boxing, as proved by his ability to sell out the 50,000 capacity Akron Stadium last night for his win over John Ryder.
Although Alvarez’ status as pound for pound king may have slipped somewhat over the past twelve months, the incredible scenes in Guadalajara proved he is still as revered as ever by his national compatriots in Mexico.
However, speaking on his podcast THE FIGHT, esteemed trainer Teddy Atlas revealed he does rank Canelo as one of the ten best fighters the country has ever produced.
“Canelo is not the greatest Mexican fighter of all time, he’s not even in the top ten.”
“I have great admiration and respect for the history of that country and their fighters. That’s why I say he’s not in the top ten.”
“I’m not going to let someone be placed in there who doesn’t belong in there.”
Despite his best efforts to score a knockout in front of his adoring public, Canelo could not budge the game Ryder, who survived an early broken nose and a heavy fifth round knockdown to hear the final bell last night.
Although he did not perhaps not do enough to win a great deal of the rounds, ‘The Gorilla’ was competitive the whole way through, and was since described by Canelo post fight as posing the toughest test of any of the eight Brits to step in the ring with him.
Canelo will now look to finalise terms for a rematch with old foe Dmitriy Bivol, to whom he suffered his first defeat in almost a decade last May.