Canelo Alvarez

Saúl 'Canelo' Álvarez has been boxing's biggest star for over a decade, and the résumé backs the fame: world titles in four weight classes, the first undisputed super middleweight champion of the four-belt era, and a record of 63-2-2 built against essentially every notable name from 154 to 175 pounds.

The evolution is the underrated part. The freckled teenager from Guadalajara who turned pro at 15 became the sport's best body puncher and one of its best counter-punchers — a fighter who wins with head movement, timing, and a left hook to the liver that ends nights in installments.

His two losses required greatness: a 2013 schooling by Floyd Mayweather when Canelo was 23, and Dmitry Bivol's masterclass at light heavyweight in 2022. Between and after them, he beat Gennady Golovkin (twice, with a draw), Miguel Cotto, Sergey Kovalev, Callum Smith, and Jermell Charlo, among many others.

Now in his mid-thirties and a national institution in Mexico, every remaining Canelo fight is an event by definition. The conversation about his place among the Mexican greats — Chávez, Sánchez, Morales, Barrera — is already a serious one.