By: Sean Crose
Face it – Canelo Alvarez rules the world (the world of boxing, that is). Know why? Because he deserves to. Although social media indicates there are many who don’t care for the guy, the red haired Mexican star is unquestionably the biggest force in the sport right now. Fighters like Gervonta Davis, Tyson Fury, and others can certainly lay claim to being popular and exciting. They haven’t achieved what Canelo has, however, at least not in 2021. We’re not talking pay per view numbers, either. We’re talking about a entire combination of things.
For starters – and this is big – Canelo fought as regularly as possible in 2021, and certainly more than any other big name fighter out there. While there may be good reasons for the Fury’s, Errol Spences, and Terence Crawford’s of the world to have fought a few times a piece at most, Canelo went out of this way to fight three times in 2021. That unquestionably isn’t a whole lot of fights, but that level of activity is strange coming from a contemporary top fighter, to say the least. What’s more, two of Canelo’s three opponents this year, Caleb Plant and Billy Joe Saunders respectively, represented considerable competition (at least on paper). Still, people will point to names like Golovkin, Benevidez, and Charlo and shake their heads. Shake away, but who else has regularly challenged himself in 2021 the way Canelo has?
Yet it’s been more than winning fights for Canelo past year – for he’s been winning in thunderous fashion. None of the man’s three opponents for 2021 – neither Plant, nor Saunders, nor the way over his head Avni Mildrim, went the distance with the 57-1-2 multidivisional titlist. Canelo hasn’t just emerged victorious, he’s ended fights via exclamation point all year. And while, yes, there are other big potential fights on the horizon (I’m probably the only person left on earth who wouldn’t mind a third GGG battle), credit has to be given where credit is due.
Simply put, Canelo towers over the rest of the fight game right now. He may not be as dominant a king as Mayweather, Tyson, Ali or others were, but Canelo is – or certainly should be – the face of the sport. He’s simply that good – and that accomplished. Let’s see what 2022 brings for the man, or perhaps what he brings to 2022. Canelo is nothing if not worthy of fan’s attention.
