Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez finds himself in a position he has rarely experienced during his professional boxing career and that's being on the losing end of a contest.
The Mexican suffered his second loss this past weekend after losing to WBA light-heavyweight Dmitry Bivol in Las Vegas.
Bivol produced a dominant display to earn himself a 115-113 win on all three judges' scorecards which has led to calls for a rematch between the pair.
Writing in his latest column for Metro, British boxing legend Ricky Hatton sees some parallels between the state Canelo is in and former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua ahead of his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
"The decision on the night was not in doubt but Canelo wasn’t overpowered in there either, he didn’t take any heavy shots so I think he will be desperate to put that right in a rematch," Hatton said.
"He has cleaned up below at super-middleweight, there are no more challenges left for him there – once you reach the top of the mountain like he has done, there isn’t much point going back especially when there is no one really there to touch him. If Canelo is the fighter I believe him to be, he will want to do it again.
"It reminds me of the situation with Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua. In their first fight, AJ clearly lost but he didn’t take a drilling, he wasn’t put down by heavy shots. People believe that if AJ can apply new tactics in the rematch he will have a lot more success and Canelo might be thinking he can maybe do the same.
"He didn’t get a good hiding in there and that will encourage him. I’m sure he is thinking there are things he can do differently and he will certainly want another charge at that light-heavyweight title. You never want to go back over old ground. He will think in the back of his mind he will get the beating of him."
If Canelo did get past Bivol on May 7, it was expected a trilogy fight with Gennadiy Golovkin at 168lbs would be next, but the loss to the WBA light-heavyweight title holder has thrown these plans into disarray.