Soccer
  • Home
  • Boxing
  • Exclusive: Canelo Alvarez Can Become The Greatest Fighter Of All Time

Exclusive: Canelo Alvarez can become the greatest fighter of all-time

"The level of opposition, the quality, the activity, it all points out that he is on the way of becoming one of the greatest fighters in Mexican history and the world."

Mauricio Sulaiman believes Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez is on his way to becoming one of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport.

Canelo, boxing's Pound for Pound best, has an incredible resume and boasts wins over Gennadiy Golovkin, Billy Joe Saunders, Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley and Sergey Kovalev.

Sulaiman - the WBC president - witnessed Canelo unify the super middleweight division last weekend in Texas and has predicted the 59-fight, 30-year-old superstar to achieve even more in the sport.

"Canelo is making his legacy, he is still young and has got a bright future ahead," he exclusively told Planet Sport.

"If you look at the numbers he has with facts, not only what people say or think, it has been more than 10 years as an elite fighter.
"He has won world titles in four different classes, has fought in 20 world title fights and has faced 19 world champions so the level of opposition, the quality, the activity, it all points out that he is on the way of becoming one of the greatest fighters in Mexican history and the world.
"He's mature inside the ring and outside the ring and he is tremendous for the sport."

Sulaiman admits he would love to see the four-division world champion take on David Benavidez, Jermall Charlo and Golovkin after his historic undisputed showdown with IBF titlist Caleb Planet.

Canelo is unbeaten since 2013 and has just one defeat on his record to Floyd Mayweather although he was 23 years old at the time.

Saunders suffered multiple facial fractures on Cinco de Mayo weekend and was forced to retire on his stool after trainer Mark Tibbs refused to allow him back out for round nine.

The fight, which was live and exclusive to DAZN in more than 200 territories worldwide, witnessed a record-breaking 73,126 fans at the AT&T Stadium.

It broke the previous indoor boxing record set by Muhammad Ali and Leon Spinks, who attracted 63,352 in their 1978 New Orleans rematch.

"It was an unbelievable event which marks the beginning of a new era for humanity," Sulaiman said.
"We've had a year in which every single sport had to be stopped worldwide. Some sports had events without (the) public, then there were some events with some public - the Champions League, the Super Bowl, World Series of Baseball were great events but they had limited public.
"Then this event [Canelo-Saunders] comes with a full stadium with so much energy, so much atmosphere, a great entrance, spectacle and music and then a sensational fight. Billy Joe Saunders was very brave, very courageous, connected Canelo and had good moments.
"But then Canelo systematically worked the body, worked the combinations and then exploded in the eighth-round with a brutal demonstration of power and a dramatic ending to the fight."

READ MORE:

The night Henry Cooper humbled Cassius Clay

Against all Odds: How Tyson Fury changed the landscape of heavyweight boxing

Muhammad Ali, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson: Every WBC world heavyweight champion

    More Articles