Only three men in the world have beaten Saul Canelo Alvarez in a professional fight despite the Mexican superstar having 68 fights under his belt.
That loss column in Canelo’s record should ideally read four because the first of his three legendary fights against Gennady Golovkin ought to have been scored a win for Golovkin instead of the “very political” decision to score the bout as a draw.
The second of those three fights should have been a draw and not a win for Canelo but irrespective of these differing views from yours truly, Canelo’s career ranks as one of the very best in the long and deep history of the sport of boxing.
Three just three men have beaten Canelo inside the ring in a professional boxing setting despite Canelo going up against the likes of Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto and Amir Khan and this past weekend had Terence Crawford become just the third man to do so.
Floyd Mayweather Jnr. and Dmitry Bivol are the men beside Crawford to beat Canelo and all three fighters beat Canelo in three different weight classes which, again, speaks to the greatness of the Mexican fighter.
Mayweather Jnr beat Alvarez in the welterweight division while Bivol beat Canelo in the light heavyweight division and Crawford beat Canelo in the super middleweight division this past Sunday at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
In the aftermath of Crawford’s significant win over Canelo, there have been serious conversations about who Crawford should fight next after replacing Canelo as the face of boxing. A rematch with Canelo has been floated around widely while an interesting bout against Britain’s undefeated Hamzah Sheeraz looks to be a good matchup considering Sheeraz stands at 6 foot 3 inches while Crawford stands at 5 foot 8 inches.
The other major conversation after Crawford’s latest win has centered around an interesting question; which fighter delivered the best performance in his win over Canelo? Between Mayweather Jnr., Bivol and Crawford, who beat Canelo best and the resounding answer is Terence Crawford with Mayweather in second and Bivol in third place.
The world is waiting for Bivol to quickly recover from back surgery and finally get in the ring against Artur Beterbiev to complete their trilogy so a winner in the series is determined with either fighter bagging a win though there is a legitimate argument to be made for Beterbiev’s win in the first fight to have been scored a draw. Looking back at Bivol’s unanimous decision win over Canelo in 2022, the Soviet Union born-boxer dominated Alvarez in a very entertaining fight.
In fact, Bivol’s fight against Canelo ranks as the most entertaining of the three losses in Canelo’s career as both men traded punches and multiple combinations which is far from what took place in the case of Crawford and Mayweather Jnr.
However, Bivol’s win ranks as the lowest as he fought against Alvarez in only Canelo’s second fight in the light heavyweight division. In a battle featuring boxers who are heavy handed, the natural light heavyweight who is more adept in the 175 division and more powerful Bivol was expected to win and he did so in emphatic fashion.
Floyd Mayweather Jnr. checks into second place on this list despite his well-executed plan of neutralizing Canelo’s counter punching threat by proving elusive and baiting Canelo to launch attacks that opened Canelo up to eat up Mayweather’s sharp jabs. However, Mayweather’s win over Canelo doesn’t get first place because watching that bout was that of a master at his craft schooling a prodigious talent who is great but isn’t complete.
Prior to facing Mayweather Jnr., Alvarez had 43 bouts under his belt with just a draw and no losses on his record. That is such a high number of fights for Canelo to be described as inexperienced compared to the wily American. Two opposites can be true and yes, Canelo was experienced as a boxer but was an inexperienced boxer fighting against a guy like Mayweather Jnr; simply put, Canelo had fought so many bouts at age 23 but hadn’t fought enough guys like Mayweather Jnr.
This important detail Canelo lacked led to him being no match for the man whose brilliant defensive skills got him to come out of fights virtually untouched to the extent of earning the nickname “Pretty Boy”.
In the present world where instant gratification is everything, there are reasons to believe that Crawford getting the crown as the best performer against Canelo is rooted in recency bias enough to make it a dismissive thought but this isn’t the case.
Stepping up three weight classes from welterweight to score the upset win over Canelo was impressive and doing so while stunning Canelo with punches that are as rare as the double punch with his rare hand-not his lead hand-deserves the right recognition as the best performance.
Heading into the fight, Crawford’s chances of winning the bout hinged on not trading punches with Canelo and fighting from range but this wasn’t the case as the Omaha native traded punches with Canelo at various points in the contest and also fought in close range rather than deliver a Tom and Jerry kind of fight.
What truly stands out in Crawford’s “Canelo CV” and separates Crawford’s win over Mayweather and Bivol’s version is that Crawford wasn’t expected to beat Canelo but he did. The 36 year old Mayweather and the natural light heavyweight Bivol were expected to beat Alvarez and it played out as such but Crawford was expected to lose but ended up doing the opposite.
For close to a decade, Saul Canelo Alvarez has been the face of boxing and the cash cow in the sport and though Crawford won’t be the new cash cow of boxing because he won’t stick around long enough to do so, he is the new face of boxing after defeating Canelo. Terence Crawford also bags the distinct honour as the man with the most impressive win among the boxers to beat the great Canelo Alvarez.
