By Hesiquio Balderas
After his TKO victory over Billy Joe Saunders, Canelo Alvarez was interviewed by Box Azteca where Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. is an expert commentator.
“Let me say first that you’re the greatest, you’re the inspiration I looked up to when I was a little boy. I used to watch tapes of your fights to learn from you,” Canelo told Chavez Sr. “I will never try to say I’m better than you because I look up to you. I just want to make my own history, my own path.”
Chávez Sr. had complimentary words for Canelo as well.
“You’re the best. I don’t understand how people would have said bad things about you when there are more than 73,000 people in this arena. You’re an idol and you deserve it,” said Chavez. “People always make comparisons but that’s just hate or envy. I’m proud of what you’ve done and I feel very proud of you.”
Chávez isn’t the greatest Mexican fighter of all time, a lot of people will just regurgitate something about him they read on another boxing forum or look at his blown up record with questionable opponents. Greatest Mexican fighter of all time is Ruben Olivares by far. Now there is a fighter who fought everyone & ducked no one like canelo *cough* *cough* Artur beterbiev … Dimitry bivol.
You talk shit he hasn’t ducked anyone why should the greats always have to move up in weight for a pleb to say ‘See I told you’.
Wow, still trying to push the LH division on Canelo. Canelo already said he has no plans to move up again for now. Let it go my dude.. let it go….
L…for Loser,
Why not suggest Beterbiev and Bivol face each other?
Their both LH champions.
We demanded Canelo fight GGG…. And he did… Twice.
Having said that, go enjoy a big bowl of STFU!
Right, fight each other then you can challenge the champion. Hell, we could say we want Canelo too, but you got to earn the fight and payday.
L, I’m surprised your not demanding Canelo to face the winner of Joshua vs fury.
L, I’m surprised you haven’t demanded canelo face the winner of Joshua vs Fury.
Ruben Olivares? I don’t really see that. I know he was extremely popular and respected. For good reason. But his record was blown up too. He faced many no-names and half-mediocre boxers during his career. When he started to face better competition he was KO’d 9 times and had 13 defeats. Sometimes even against boxers that could be more qualitative.
Canelo is not my favorite boxer but I truly respect him. He doesn’t have to go up to LH now. He still has some business to do in SM. Benavidez and Plant to start with.
I’m surprised about Canelos physical strength. I’m actually not sure if Bivol nor Beterbiev can match Canelo’s strength.
Let’s say Canelos career continues as it does, I see no reason it shouldn’t, he can challenge the top in LH about a year or two from now.
But think both russians, not Canelo, need to be more prepared before such a fight. At that time Beterbiev might be too old. I see Bivol as Canelos best challenge in LH.
They all want that slice of the cake but make your self relevant first canelo is going for the undisputed championship. Canelo stays active fights everyone at his weigh division while the rest are crying and hating on canelo cause they won’t get a fight focus on your own path I should tell these fighters but no surprise same shit was said about mayweather when he was the goat.
Well that’s your opinion. If you look at Olivares record his first 50 opponents were against either no bodies or over the hill guys so I really don’t know what your talking about. Olivares was also ko’d 9 times so I’m just gonna go ahead and say that Olivares is definitely not the greatest Mexican of all time. Top 10 but that’s it.
i guess L stands for loser? you do knw that Chavez Sr holds the record for titles fought and the longest unbeaten streak from the start of a career and dont start with he fought taxi drivers because if thats the case i guess your calling the former olympians he beat garbage as well get over yourself clueless fanboy
and to further educate you Ruben Oliveras finished his career 89-13-3 79kos and was kod 9x had a draw in his 29th fight and loss in his 63rd fight was also only a 118lb champion so again NOT even close to what JC Chaves SR accomplished move along youngster know your facts first before you spit out nonsense…..education is over continue on
Salvador Sanchez?
Beat 4 future hall of famers before 24, several championship fights. Now a days 24 is still working my way up.
I’m sorry but Ruben Olivares is not the greatest Mexican fighter of all time. It’s Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. the man fought wars in the ring and fought much better opponents than Ruben Olivares did. He was warship and idolized by his peers for a reason. Chavez had a blown up record in the early part of his career before he started to drift off towards better opposition. Olivares was fighting scrubs all the way up towards the end of his career and lost 13 times. Chavez was 107-6-2-87 KO’s. A boxing legend in Mexico. Noone talks about Olivares. Canelo Alvarez is on a path to surpass him maybe not his record, but definitely his fame if he keeps up fighting some of the biggest names in boxing today. He already has a better resume in his short career than both. If Canelo can unify the belts he definitely will be. His own path to greatness. Even with the 1 loss on Canelo’s resume is no knock off as Mayweather at the time was at the pinnacle of his greatness while Canelo was still a little young and hadn’t reached his peak yet. I don’t think there is anyone that can beat Canelo right now even BJS was loosing on the scorecards before he quit on his stool. I had BJS winning only 2 or 3 rounds the whole fight as did the judges. It wasn’t as close as some of the biased commentators made it out to be. BJS was dancing and throwing weak punches the whole fight. He had no answer and was scared to punch it out for good reason. Even requesting a larger ring so he can dance around a bit more didn’t help him.
I think the greatest Mexican fighter ever, had his career not been cut short by an auto accident, would have been Salvador Sanchez. With that being said I think the greatest Mexican fighter who had a full career was Ricardo finito Lopez. He fought very good opposition and dominated almost everyone. He also retired undefeated while, not only cherry picking his opponents like Floyd Mayweather did, but fighting the very best opposition his divisions could afford him. I also think Juan Manuel Marquez is a better fighter than either Chavez senior or Canelo. Casual fans, which are 99% of the posters on this site, seem to think popularity and ticket sales determine the best fighters ever. It’s who they fought and when they fought them that determines who the best was.
Chris. Agreed. Lets not forget and marco Antonio Barrera back in his days. He was something special too. But yes, the ones yiu mentioned are all great fighters!!
I agree listen to you all. A shot kovalev was OK though right? Especially after a hard fight just weeks before? He goes up to 175 to 180 or more easily.
Wow. He fucked the how? He came from 154. What more do you want from him. Wow. The nerve of you.
Canelo might be Chávez real and only son lol…
Ang, i bet Senior is telling himself ” I wish Canelo was my son instead of chavez jr” hahaha
Haha yes for sure… he might be after all. I must be honest , when he first was fighting he didn’t show any of this type of potential but this dude is the truth . His style , his pressure and most important he’s loyal to the game you can tell he don’t play when it comes to his work in the gym … it is paying off
I’m puertorican and can truly say that a lot of my people don’t take the game as serious with all the potential and skills..
Camelot USA great fighter but he still never beat ggg. He lost both of those fights
Let’s just all face the facts that Canelo is a great fighter. Hasn’t come close to losing since he lost to Mayweather. As of now, no more jealous and hate towards Canelo.
You don’t think he came close to losing in his first fight with GGG?
Canelo was fortunate to get the draw.
I had Canelo closely but clearly winning their second fight though.
Both were competitive.
I won’t argue Canelo isn’t a great fighter, he clearly is, but I would disagree that he hasn’t come close to losing since Mayweather – I thought he lost the first GGG fight clearly and the second could have gone either way. No one else has troubled him since though, and he seems to improved since those fights, so I’d make him a clear favourite for a trilogy fight.
Actually he has a couple of disputed fights so he has come close to, if not actually, losing. Be honest.
Why is it that every time a boxer moves up in weight, right away they want him to move up to the next weight class?
Canelo is one of the greatest fighter’s period. He’s the red headed step son to a lot of Mexican’s, I guess he not dark enough for them.
Not all Mexicans are dark. We prefer naturally tanned.
Canelo is a great fighter for his era just as Chavez, Olivares,Zarate,Barrera, Morales,Canto, Humberto Gonzalez, Cuevas, Saldivar, and Sanchez among others. Salud to them all. Of course, Sanchez was my favorite. He could do it all and was damn near text book perfect as a fighter.
Juan Manuel Marquez is my favorite Mexican fighter.
I agree. Juan Manuel Marquez is the greatest Mexican fighter in history. Salvador Sanchez could have been the greatest if he had lived.
Ricardo Lopez, most underrated and forgotten Mexican Champion. 51-0-1
Nothing to sneeze at
“Hands of Stone” would be an appropriate nickname for Chavez Sr.
I used to agree with what Canelo is saying about Chavez sr being the greatest. I mean at one point he was 89 – 0! Damn that’s just amazing!! But then I checked his actual record out on Boxrec.com and man was I disappointed 90% of his opponents were absolute bums with 0 wins and A LOT of them were regular dudes with no fights at all. I mean his record is more padded with bums than Wilders 89-0 is great, don’t get me wrong. But when your opponents are winos and cabdrivers, then you really don’t deserve to be mentioned with greats like Ray Robinson, Pep, Ali, Hagler etc etc and yes Canelo. Canelo is absolutely gonna be an all time great But Chavez sr? Not so much….
So your telling me Sugar Ray Robinson fought no bums out of 200 fights?? Lmao Same for Pep, or Leonard, or Hagler. Everyone fights bums. That’s how you learn. You fight bums and old guys. Chavez beat Bazooka Limon on his way up the latter. Was Bazooka Limon a taxi cab driver or wino??! Cmon guys that arguement is stupid. First 14 guys on Hagler’s record are bums. Same for Ali.
It’s always tough getting into all time “bests”, mexican best fighter etc but at least it’s safe to say who is best of their own era. Canelo has the all around achievements, but he still has let’s say “blemishes” combined with the advantages of navigating between weights in a 4 belt system. And still can’t deny chavez sr’s top notch resume, minus the couple of controversial fights. It’s so impressive that he is even going to do a exhibition at his age.
I like to go with Ricardo Lopez and his resume. 17 years fighting, higher KO% than Canello and he stayed in the same low weight classes the whole time so avoided nobody. I’m impressed with guys that manage to make the same weight as they age and still keep retaining the title. 21 consecutive defenses I believe is harder than moving up and picking a title to go after. That’s not a knock on Canelo. He mostly goes after the biggest names, although I can’t forget the GGG situation and Lara.
Cool thing is that Canello could easily end up with 80-85 fights and that’s astounding in this era for a dominant fighter. Looking forward to see what’s next for him.
Nice to see mutual respect between 2 greats.
It doesn’t matter who is the greatest , there are so many greats from Mexico.
I will however say that Canelo is the greatest in this era. I also like the way he conducts himself.
Yes Kovalev was probably the weakest of the LH belt holders and not what he used to be but Canelo has made it clear that he wants to unify at SM and that’s exactly what he’s doing. Of course even if he beats Plant there will be those who believe Benavidez is the biggest threat. Benavidez lost the title on the scales but should Canelo beat Benavidez (and I reckon he’d fight him no problem) there will almost certainly be those who will say DB was past his best or weight drained.
He handily beat 2 decent Brits and I have nothing but respect for the guy.
Kovelev was the top LH at the time both Bivol and Beterbiev didnt want to fight Kovelev so both can fight each other then move up stop weight draining the fuck out of themselves
so many great fighters from mexico, i guess like most sports it comes down to your opinion, all the fighters mentioned here had a beginning and a end in their career, i always have wondered how great salvador sanchez would have been, 9 title defenses at the age of 23 with wins already over danny lopez twice, azumah nelson, wilfred gomez and other great fighters, we will never know but he’s my pick
Too many divisions make it tempting to move into an unnatural smaller division-the eight weight classes made it much more difficult to do this and there was more of the best fighting the best.
My 3 favorite Mexican fighters in my era:
1. Marco Antonio Barrerra
2. Eric Morales
3. Juan Manual Marquez