I must admit the first time I saw Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez live in person I didn’t come away overly thrilled. Fighting undersized former title contender Jose Miguel Cotto, brother of WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel, we saw Alvarez rocked and slightly staggered in the first round as his weaknesses were on full display in a nightmarish moment.
To his credit Alvarez would regroup and eventually halt Cotto eight rounds later, avoiding what would have been a disaster inside of the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as he shared the spotlight underneath Floyd Mayweather’s dissection of Shane Mosley. I couldn’t help but be hesitant towards Alvarez’s future but three fights and less than a year later and the 20-year old kid is now a champion.
<--- Slideshow: Saul Alvarez's title celebration in Guadalajara
This past weekend Alvarez easily outpointed England’s Matthew Hatton over twelve rounds inside of the Honda Center in Anaheim, California to pick up the vacant WBC junior middleweight championship. While Alvarez certainly sill has his share of detractors at this point, he did in fact become the younger ever champion at 154 pounds with the win and received a hero’s welcoming in his native Guadalajara, Mexico.
Practically an icon in his native land already, Alvarez was greeted by throngs of supporters and members of the media at Guadalajara’s international airport last tonight. The champion’s older brother Rigoberto, still aching from his own loss to Austin Trout last month, was one of the first to greet him and after letting his sibling interact with the masses he would extort him to his hometown of Juanacatian.
From there Alvarez would bring in the night in glorious fashion with his friends and family and everyone enjoyed roasted beef, dancing, beer and music throughout the night. Alvarez was visibly on cloud nine and seemed to be soaking up every minute of the ambience.
A bevy of young and hungry challengers and champions lurk in the junior middleweight class and Alvarez still has a lot of proving to do but on this night it was good times had by all.
For all the latest on Saul Alvarez’s victory, this weekend’s Mgiuel Cotto-Ricardo Mayorga clash, Bob Arum’s thoughts on the boxing world and more please visit the Las Vegas Boxing Examiner Home Page
