30 Fascinating Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Canelo Alvarez

Santos Saúl Álvarez Barragán, famous as Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, is a professional boxer, who is ranked as the world's best active boxer, pound for pound, by BoxRec, as of May 2017. Here are some very interesting facts about the Mexican professional boxer:

1. He was born Santos Saul Alvarez Barragan, on July 18, 1990, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, to Santos Alvarez and Ana Maria Barragan.
2. According to Spanish naming customs, he adopted his paternal family name, ‘Alvarez’ and the maternal family name ‘Barragan.’ The name ‘Canelo’ in Spanish is the masculine word for cinnamon, which is common nickname for people with red hair.
3. His families are Mexican of Spanish origin. He is the youngest of eight children seven of them are boys, who are also into professional boxing.
4. He dropped out of school in his eighth grade to take-up boxing, against his parents’ wishes. He was hooked to boxing after seeing his oldest brother Rigoberto making his professional boxing debut.
5. In 2004, he won the silver medal and next year he won the championship at the Junior Mexican National Championship, held in Tuxtla, Gutierrez, Chiapas. He has an amateur record of 44-2.
6. Alvarez turned professional after winning the junior national championship at 15 years. He recorded 11 knockouts in his 13 documented bouts within first 19 months as a professional.
7. On June 28, 2008, he was part of world history when and his all six brothers fought a bout on the same night. He defeated future IBF Lightweight Champion, Miguel Vasquez.
8. On May01, 2010, as a 19 year old with 32-0-1 including 23 knockouts, he defeated Jose Miguel Cotto, fighting at 150 pounds. This was the undercard bout on the night of Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley fight.
9. He was gifted two horses by Mexican singer and by the mayor of Tepic after his win over Luciano Leonel Cuell, for the WBC Silver Light Middleweight bout held in the Vicente Fernandez Arena on July 10, 2010. He learned horse riding growing-up in his farm and enjoys it to this day.
10. On September 18, 2010, he took on former WBC Welterweight Champion Carlos Baldomir, at the Staples Center, Los Angeles, California. He knocked him out in sixth round, as the only boxer to do so and second boxer ever to stop Carlos Baldomir.
11. Alvarez won the WBC Light Middleweight belt against Matthew Hatton of UK by 119-108 points in a unanimous decision. The fight was held at Honda Center in Anaheim, California and was televised on HBO, for viewership of 1.4 million.
12. He successfully defended his newly acquired WBC Light Middleweight title against EBU Champion, Ryan Rhodes on June 18 and Alfonso Gomez of Mexico on September 17, 2011. He was stretched by Rhodes up to twelfths rounds, which had viewership of 1.6 million HBO.
13. As the youngest reigning champion in the world at 21 years, Alvarez, scored a fifth round technical knockout of Kermit Cintron, of Puerto Rican to retain his WBC Light middleweight belt in Mexico City on November 26, 2011. Alvarez landed 79 total punches and had huge edge in power shots with 62-19.
14. Alvarez added the World Boxing Association belt to his World Boxing Council title on April 20, 2013, defeating Austin Trout by decision. It was the first knockout for Trout and the Alvarez dedicated his fight to his brother, Rigoberto, who had previously lost to him. This fight earned him huge popularity.
15. On September 14, 2013, Alvarez lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. to taste his first professional bout defeat. The fight was for the WBC, WBA regular and WBA Super Light middle Weight title. It was a twelve-round majority decision for Mayweather, who outclassed Alvarez in front of sellout crowd of 16,746 at MGM Garden.
16. On March 08, 2014, he scored a tenth round stoppage over Alfredo Angulo with left uppercut. Alvarez came out extremely fast and hammered Angulo and by fifth round his left eye started swelling. The crowd heavily booed the stoppage.
17. On July 12, 2014, Alvarez defeated Erislandy Lara by split decision in a non-title fight. Lara utilized stick-and-move style effectively, but his output dropped in the middle rounds. Alvarez managed to land 88 power punches and was able to cut Lara with a lead left uppercut in the seventh round.
18. On May 09, 2015, he sent James Kirkland packing in the third round, which drew a 2,296 million viewership for HBO, the highest in 2015. Alvarez wobbled him in first round before Kirkland came out aggressively only to be sent to hospital to undergo a C T scan with right uppercut in the third round.
19. On November 21, 2015, he won the WBC, lineal and The Ring middleweight titles with a unanimous decision over Miguel Cotto, at the Mandalay Bay Events Centre in Las Vegas. Two months after the fight, the WBC awarded Alvarez the WBC Diamond middleweight title at their headquarters in Mexico.
20. According to HBO, the fight generated 900,000 buys on PVV, which amounts to $ 58 million in domestic revenue. This was the first time since, a heavyweight title fight between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson in 2002, to generate such a huge buy.
21. On May 07, 2016, Alvarez was set to defend his WBC middleweight championship title against welterweight Amir Khan, who was moving up the weight divisions. Despite Khan’s speed and movement which troubled him initially, Alvarez landed a monster right hand to Khan’s chin in the sixth round to knock him out and retain his title. He later relinquished the title on May 18.
22. On September 17, 2016, he returned to Light-middleweight division to challenge WBO Champion Liam Smith of UK, at AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas, US. In front of record breaking crowd of 51,240, Alvarez regained the title with left hook in the ninth round. It was Smith’s first defeat in 25 fights.
23. After much delay and negotiation the fight was confirmed on May 06, 2017, with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for the World Middleweight title. According to the terms Chavez Jr. would accept $ 6 million base purse plus PPV revenue and a rematch in case of a win. He would have pay $ 1million for every pound over the weight limit of 164.5 pounds.
24. In front of sell-out crowd at the T-Mobile Arena, Paradise, Nevada, US, Alvarez won the fight by a unanimous decision. The fight generated close to 1.2 million buys, which amounts to around $ 80 million.
25. On September 16, 2017, Alvarez bout with Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan was held at T-Mobile Arena, Paradise, Nevada, US. The fight ended in a three-way draw. The draw meant Golovkin retained his WBC, WBA and IBF middleweight belts. There was lot of controversy over the judge’s scorecard.
26. Alvarez fought 52 bouts as a professional with 49 wins, 1 loss and 2 draws. The 34 of the 49 wins were by knockouts.
27. Alvarez is engaged to Marisol Gonzalez, the former Miss Mexico Universe 2003 and sports reporter for Televisa Deportes. He has a daughter Emily Cinnamon Alvarez with former girlfriend.
28. In February 2016, Alvarez signed long term deals with Heineken-owned Mexican beer brand ‘Tecate.’ According to Gustavo Guerrero, the brand director for Tecate, both share common ground for being Mexico’s best in their respective categories-boxing and beer.
29. Alvarez has lent a helping hand to relief efforts in Mexico after 7.1 magnitude earthquakes devastated the country on 19 of September. He donated $ 1 million in aid of the victims of the disaster.
30. Alvarez was awarded ‘The Ring Magazine’ knockout of the year in 2015 and 2016 apart from being awarded the ‘ESPN Fighter of the Year’ for the same period.
31. Saul Alvarez Net Worth: $25 Million