LORD OF THE RING

A conversation with nearly-undefeated Mexican boxing sensation Canelo Álvarez 

- JORDAN RIEFE

It was a nagging pain Canelo Álvarez walked away with following his May, 2022 defeat at the hands of Russian light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol. Of course, pain is an occupational hazard for a fighter, but persistent pain could be something to take seriously—if you let it slow you down.

Which Álvarez didn’t, completing a fraught trilogy of battles with middleweight Gennady Golovkin last September with a win, revealing only after the fight that he could barely use his left hand. Undergoing surgery in November, Álvarez, whose career spans roughly 17 years with a record of 58-2-2 with 39 KO’s, is currently weighing a rematch against Bivol, only the second fighter ever to beat him. Some say Álvarez, who has won multiple world championships across four different weight classes, was mismatched, scaling up to fight a boxer who was just too big for him.

“Obviously I now have more weight on my body to move and I’m not used to it, but I don’t care about that,” Álvarez says about the prospect of a rematch. “I just need to be able to train 100 percent, no injury, nothing, and I’m going to be great. It’s about being 100 percent in my body. I started healing and I feel good.”