It takes a brave man to agree to let Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez punch you in the stomach.
This, after all, is a man whose reputation precedes him, with 39 knockouts to his name in 60 bouts and he has been known to fracture orbital bones and detach biceps in the ring.
In a video posted to the Matchroom Boxing Instagram, Canelo takes a break from his regular training schedule to test his power on the mid-section of a blogger from Barstool Sports, called Large, who volunteered to be the Mexican’s punching bag.
Granted, Large was wearing a chest guard, but that didn’t seem to make the punches any less painful, as the Mexican’s power looks terrifying and it leaves the blogger understandably distressed in this hilarious but brutal video.
After taking just one proper punch, Large had already had enough.
“That’s full speed?” he asked. “That’s f****** terrible, I’m gonna be p****** blood.”
After taking two more punches he was done.
“I don’t know about this s***… hold on a second, I haven’t cried in f****** years.”
Next up for Canelo is a clash with the WBA light-heavyweight champion, Dmitry Bivol, as the pair are set to meet in the ring on May 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
This will be Canelo’s tenth consecutive world title fight, a run stretching back to his first bout against Gennady Golovkin, and it will be the Mexican’s second outing at light-heavyweight, having knocked out Sergey Kovalev in 2019.
This fight with Bivol is the first in a two-fight deal that Canelo signed with Matchroom Boxing and Eddie Hearn earlier this year.
His next challenge is expected to be back at 168 lbs, as Canelo will defend his undisputed crown in a trilogy fight with his long-time rival, Golovkin.
