KEY POINTS
- Saul "Canelo" Alvarez talks about his first boxing fight as a teenager
- Alvarez knocked a grown man out when he was 14
- Many are convinced that the Mexican superstar can hurt a heavyweight
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez knew early on that he was gifted with some devastating power in his hands.
With 37 wins by way of KO to his name, Alvarez has proven that he is one of the hardest hitters there is.
While many develop skill in knocking opponents out cold through training, Alvarez may have possibly had it since the day he was born.
In a recent appearance on “In Depth with Graham Bensinger,” Alvarez was asked to recount how he managed to turn the lights out on a grown man in his 30s at age 14.
“He was some 30 or 35 years old, and I was 14. I was born for this,” he remembered.
Like most teenage boys, Alvarez didn’t enjoy going to school. He fell in love with boxing at an early age and made his professional debut at 15 years old.
Looking back, the multi-division champion has no regrets about his decision to quit school for boxing.
“I never liked school. I never liked it really,” he stated. “I always went because I had to go, but when I came to know boxing, I debuted professionally at 15. I was in eighth grade.”
“My father got very mad,” he added. “He didn’t want to let me be a boxer. I’d escape from where I worked with him and he scolded me a lot. [I told him], ‘You know what, whether you get angry, you hit me, whatever you do, I’m never going to leave boxing.'”
Saul "Canelo" Alvarez celebrates after crushing Turkey's Avni Yildirim in three rounds at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday Photo: Matchroom Boxing / Ed Mulholland
Throughout his stellar career, Alvarez has made quite a name for himself with his prodigious power punches, specifically “body shots.”
People in the sport who have witnessed and experienced Alvarez’s power have been raving about him, including sparring partners and even the trainer of his most recent opponent Avni Yildirim.
“There is only one Canelo,” Yildirim’s trainer Ahmet Oner said shortly after the fight. “Avni [Yildirim] fought on a big stage against Chris Eubank and lost, but not like against Canelo.”
“He’s better than Mike Tyson, more solid,” the coach continued. “If he was bigger, he could even beat Anthony Joshua. Canelo is in a different league.”
