Saul “Canelo” Alvarez continues his quest for boxing immortality Saturday, May 8 when he steps into the ring with British challenger Billy Jo Saunders in front of 70,000 – mainly Mexican – fans at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The much anticipated Cinco de Mayo weekend showdown sees three of the four world titles in the super middleweight division up for grabs, with the Mexican putting his WBA/WBC titles up against Saunders’ WBO belt. Should Alvarez prevail, as the bookies expect, he would only need one more title, the IBF, to make history and become the only fighter ever to hold all four belts at once.
But the latest hurdle to becoming the undisputed super middleweight champ of the world won’t be as easy as his last fight in February, when he demolished the WBC mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim in three quick rounds.
Saunders, a southpaw who is undefeated in 31 fights, is “a very difficult fighter,” Alvarez conceded.
Defeating Alvarez, however, is a tall order. Considered the number one boxer in the sport, the 30-year-old Tapatio prepares meticulously for each of his fights and always turns up in optimum physical shape. “He’s like a tank. Almost impenetrable,” one awed boxing critic reflected this week.
After a long layoff in 2020, Alvarez plans to fight four times in 2021 and five times in the next 14 months. He also hopes one of these fights will be on Mexican soil.