The biggest star in the sport, Mexican hero Canelo Alvarez isn’t planning on going anywhere any time soon. Nor is the flame-haired warrior who has won belts at four weights planning on going back up to the light-heavyweight division any time soon. The plan, for the time being, is for the 30-year-old to clean up at 168 pounds, as trainer Eddy Reynoso explained when the two of them sat down to speak with TUDN. Reynoso says his fighter “gives up a lot of advantages” when he fights at 175 (as Canelo has thus far done one time, this in November of 2019, when he stopped Sergey Kovalev late on).
Canelo also said to TUDN that he plans on fighting for a good ‘six or seven years. If he makes good with his plan we will be seeing Canelo do his thing until he is 36 or 37 years of age. That would be quite the long career, especially when we remember how Alvarez went pro at the young age of 15, as is the Mexican fighting way. 21 or 22 years in the ring is a long time, even for a great fighter who dishes out far more punishment than he takes in return. But as popular as Canelo is, as exciting as he is in the ring, fans will be nothing but pleased over what he has said.
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So, can Canelo unify those super-middleweight belts? Next up as we know is a mandatory, some say, in fact almost all say, a mismatch of a fight – this against Turkish fighter Avni Yildrim a week on Saturday. Then it will be reigning WBO super-middleweight champ Billy Joe Saunders, in what most feel will be a far more testing fight for the Mexican superstar. Canelo has said he would like to have four fights in total this year, so assuming he takes care of Yildrim and then BJS, Alvarez would have plenty of time to get those two other fights in; the Saunders fight targeted for May. Caleb Plant is of the belief that he can and will beat Canelo if given the chance, so that could be a decent and interesting fight for later on in the year. Plant has those fast hands and he is a clever boxer.
All in all, though, it would take a brave fan to predict Canelo fails to achieve his goal of picking up all the pieces at 168. Canelo really does look to be head and shoulders above the rest of the best at the weight. Fans who wish to see Canelo get it on with the likes of Dmitry Bivol and/or Artur Beterbiev will have to wait, however. Reynoso says his fighter might not even move back up to the light-heavyweight ranks in 2022. For the next few months at least, it will be Canelo the 168 pound fighting machine.
So where does this leave Gennady Golovkin, Canelo’s most testing ring rival to date? Fans still want to see that third and final fight between the two genuinely bad blood rivals. It means of course that GGG will have to pack on eight pounds, but Canelo says “anything is possible” as far as this fight happening here in 2021. What a big bang of a way the trilogy fight really would be for Canelo to say goodbye to 2021 with. Canelo is currently 54-1-2(36). Will he end the year at 58-1-2(37, 38, 39, or 40)? And what might Canelo’s numbers be when he finally retires from the ring?