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How Many Belts Does Canelo Alvarez Have?

Published 11/02/2021, 1:40 PM EDT

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USA Today via Reuters

Canelo Alvarez is a household name in boxing today. The Mexican fighter, in his illustrious boxing stint, tested himself against umpteen skilled pugilists, and most of the time, he ended up on the winning side. Alvarez has a habit of winning and constantly fighting to keep himself viable in the sport and any division he fights in.

But how many belts does the Mexican stalwart hold? Is he an octuple champion?

Canelo began his boxing career in 2005, and he slowly emerged into the big picture by beating every opponent in front of him. However, his first world title shot came in 2011.

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That said, here we look at every accomplishment Canelo’s had at different weight classes, alongside the titles he held.

Canelo’s stint at the super-welterweight roster

Alvarez competed with Matthew Hatton for the vacant WBC super-welterweight title in 2011. Winning this fight via a unanimous decision, Alvarez went on to defend his WBC title numerous times. In between, he also won the WBA super-welterweight title against Austin Trout.

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Canelo defended both these belts in his subsequent fights, but abruptly in 2013, he locked horns with Floyd Mayweather to defend these titles. In that match, Saul Alvarez lost both of his belts to ‘Pretty Boy’ via a MD.

Later, in 2016, Canelo bagged the WBO super-welterweight title by battering Liam Smith via a KO in round 9.

Canelo Alvarez’s run at the middleweight frame

Canelo fought for the vacant WBC middleweight world title in 2015 against Miguel Cotto. After winning this fight, Alvarez defended this strap against Amir Khan in 2016. But, one of his greatest career fights in this division came in when he met Gennady Golovkin in the ring for a middleweight title unification fight in 2017.

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Canelo and ‘GGG’ fought for the WBC, WBA, IBF, and IBO middleweight titles. Both the men gave their absolute best in this fight for the full 12 rounds. However, judges couldn’t term one winner. As a result, this fight ended in a draw.

A year later, the duo met again to settle their scores in a rematch. Alvarez won this rematch with a majority decision and left his mark in the middleweight frame too.

Canelo Alvarez’s iconic run at the super-middleweight landscape

Post his success in the 160-pound division, the p4p star decided to notch up in weight class and compete in the super-middleweight division.

In 2018, Canelo beat Rocky Fielding to bag the WBA super-middleweight title. But, he fully shifted his attention to this weight class in 2020, when he locked horns with Callum Smith.

USA Today via Reuters

Alvarez beat Callum Smith to bag the vacant WBC super-middleweight title. Post that, he battled Billy Joe Saunders in May 2021 to unify his titles.

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Canelo Alvarez – The four-division champ

Alvarez, in 2019, notched up to the light heavyweight category too. He locked horns with Sergey Kovalev for the WBO light heavyweight title. Being a favorite, Canelo fared the way he was expected to, thus winning the title via a KO in round 11.

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With this, the Mexican boxing stalwart became a four division boxing champion.

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Watch this story – Five Times Canelo Alvarez Displayed His Impenetrable Head Movement

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Written by:

Prathamesh Singh Chauhan

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Prathamesh Singh Chauhan is a Boxing Author at EssentiallySports. He is a graduate from the International Institute of Sports Management who combines his love for sports, particularly combat sports, and his flair for writing and analysis to help him in his day-to-day work. He has prior professional experience with sporting organizations such as Star Sports, Khelo India, and NBA.
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