Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin will lock horns as they battle for the third time on Sept. 17 for the undisputed super middleweight championship at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas live on DAZN PPV in the U.S., Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand as well as around the world on DAZN (except Mexico, Kazakhstan and Latin America; check your region for availability).
Alvarez and Golovkin will return to the scene of their previous two epic battles. The first fight in September 2017 ended in a split draw, with the consensus being that Golovkin had done more than enough to earn the victory. The rematch occurred one year later, in September 2018, with Alvarez leaving victorious via majority decision.
After stopping Caleb Plant in November to become the first-ever undisputed champion at 168 pounds, Alvarez returned to light heavyweight to attempt to become a two-time champion against WBA (super) titlist Dmitry Bivol. However, Bivol had other plans in mind, soundly winning by unanimous decision to hand Alvarez his first loss in over eight years.
With feats like that, it's no wonder Canelo is the face of boxing with a 57-2-2 (39 KOs) record to boot. Here, DAZN looks back at Canelo's five best fights.
Knocking out Sergey Kovalev, November 2, 2019
Canelo and Kovalev had boxed each other pretty evenly through 10 rounds and then ... BAM! Alvarez launched a left hook that crashed across Kovalev's jaw and badly wobbled the Russian fighter. Sensing that he had Kovalev hurt, Alvarez came back with a right hook that dropped Kovalev to his knee for the instant, emphatic knockout in the 11th round. Just like that, the Mexican boxing sensation won the WBO light heavyweight title and became a four-division world champion in front of a packed MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Becoming undisputed super middleweight champion, Nov. 6, 2021
When he decided to move up permanently to 168 pounds, Canelo Alvarez had the goal of becoming the undisputed super-middleweight champion. The only thing standing in his way of accomplishing the historic feat was IBF titlist Caleb Plant.
It took a little longer than some expected,, but Canelo battered Plant for the bulk of the fight before dropping him early in the 11th round and then putting him away for good with his ferocious power to stop the native of Tennessee at the 1:05 mark of the round to become the first-ever fighter in the four-belt era to become the undisputed champion.
Beating GGG in their rematch, Sept. 15, 2018
Canelo heard all the talk about Gennadiy Golovkin getting robbed on the scorecards in their first fight, which was controversially ruled a split draw back in September 2017. And Canelo had an axe to grind about it. He did away with his counterpunch mentality and walked GGG down for many rounds, bringing the fight to the Kazakh warrior.
Although Golovkin connected on 234 of 879 punches to Alvarez's 202 of 622, it was Canelo who believed that he landed the more impactful, significant shots in the rematch. And judges agreed by scoring it as a majority decision in his favor (114-114, 115-113 and 115-113). Once again, GGG thought he should have been the winner, and many boxing pundits and fans were split on the result. But there's no doubting that Canelo's strategy change paid off and at the very least, he arguably did enough to defeat Golovkin this time around.
Defeating Miguel Cotto, Nov. 21, 2015
Canelo had gained invaluable experience in his only pro loss — a majority decision defeat to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2013. And he got to apply some of that experience against another battle-tested veteran in Miguel Cotto, as the two reignited the Mexican-Puerto Rican boxing rivalry.
Although Cotto was 35 to Canelo's 25, he possessed enough veteran savvy to possibly make this a dangerous matchup for the young lion. That, and the fact that Canelo was vying for Cotto's lineal and The Ring middleweight titles, in addition to the then-vacant WBC strap, made it all the more intriguing. The Mexican boxer made sure he didn't have any hiccups this time around, as he soundly defeated Cotto to become a two-division world champion. His third-division world title came in December 2018, when he blasted Fielding via third-round TKO for the WBA (Regular) super middleweight strap.
Breaking Billy Joe Saunders' face in front of a record crowd, May 8, 2021
Saunders was boxing well and hanging with Alvarez through seven rounds admirably. However, a stinging right uppercut to the eye changed all that during the eighth round. Canelo wound up and landed the punch perfectly, leaving Saunders' right eye practically swollen shut.
According to Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, the vicious uppercut fractured Saunders' eye socket . The damage forced Saunders to quit on his stool following the eighth round, giving Canelo the TKO victory and WBO world super-middleweight title, bringing him one step closer to undisputed glory.