After failing to become a two-time light heavyweight champion in May against WBA title holder Dmitry Bivol, Saul "Canelo" Alvarez returns to the super-middleweight division where he holds the undisputed title.
His first defence could not come against anyone bigger than Gennadiy Golovkin, who Canelo has already faced twice before in very entertaining clashes.
The first meeting in 2017 ended in a controversial draw, and then when the pair met for a second time a year later, it was Canelo who triumphed on the scorecards and claimed the Kazakh's WBA and WBC world middleweight titles.
Now Canelo will be looking to cement himself as the world's number one pound-for-pound fighter with a win over GGG and settle this heated rivalry once and for all.
Here's a rundown of Canelo's resume as a world championship boxer.
How many world titles has Canelo won?
The WBO super-middle belt he acquired in November with his win over Caleb Plant was the 16th world boxing championship of 31-year-old Alvarez's career so far.
How many weight divisions has Canelo been a champion?
In addition to super-middleweight, where Alvarez currently rules the roost, he has also been a recognised world champion at middleweight, light-middleweight/super-welterweight and light-heavyweight.
How many world titles does Canelo own right now?
After the win over Plant, Alvarez is currently the IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO and The Ring super-middleweight champion. He has all four of the 'alphabet' world titles, as well as The Ring magazine's distinction of being the 'lineal' champion in the division (which, wherever it can, follows the ethos of "to be the champion you must beat the champion").
List of Canelo's world title wins
- Beat Matthew Hatton on Mar. 5, 2011 to win vacant WBC light-middleweight title
- Beat Austin Trout on Apr. 20, 2013 for Trout's WBA light-middleweight title
- Also won the vacant The Ring light-middleweight title in the above win over Trout
- Beat Miguel Cotto on Nov. 21, 2015 for Cotto's The Ring middleweight title
- Also won the vacant WBC middleweight title in the above win over Cotto
- Beat Liam Smith on Sept. 17, 2016 for Smith's WBO light-middleweight title
- Beat Gennadiy Golovkin on Sept. 15, 2018 for Golovkin's WBA middleweight title
- Also regained Golovkin's WBC middleweight title in the above contest
- Also regained the vacant The Ring middleweight title in the above contest
- Beat Rocky Fielding on Dec. 15, 2018 for Fielding's 'regular' WBA super-middleweight title
- Beat Daniel Jacobs on May 4, 2019 for Jacobs' IBF middleweight title
- Beat Sergey Kovalev on Nov. 2, 2019 for Kovalev's WBO light-heavyweight title
- Beat Callum Smith on Dec. 19, 2020 for Smith's The Ring super-middleweight title*
- Also won the vacant WBC super-middleweight title in the above win over Smith
- Beat Billy Joe Saunders on May 8, 2021 for Saunders' WBO super-middleweight title
- Beat Caleb Plant on Nov. 6, 2021 for Plant's IBF super-middleweight title
*Canelo, as 'regular' WBA super-middleweight champion, defeated reigning 'super' WBA champion Smith and the sanctioning body chose to recognise Alvarez as their unified champion as opposed to denoting a separate title win
How many world titles has Canelo lost?
Alvarez has famously lost just two fights in his 61-bout career so far (57 wins, two draws). The first came to the 50-0 Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2013, a loss which saw Mayweather take Canelo's WBC and The Ring light-middleweight titles. As a result, those two titles are the only two out of 16 a boxer has managed to beat Alvarez for. Canelo also lost in May 2022 to Dmitry Bivol, who retained his WBA light-heavyweight strap. The other 14 titles were either stripped/vacated, or are currently still owned by Canelo.