Canelo Alvarez’s transformation from skinny teen to ripped super-middleweight

Alvarez has fought at several different weights with the super-middleweight king scaling as light as 140lbs at the start of his professional career

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Boxing: Canelo celebrates victory over Saunders

Long before four-weight world champion Canelo Alvarez dominated the super-middleweight division, the Mexican scaled as little as 140lbs as a skinny teenager.

Alvarez turned professional at the age of 15 after amassing an amateur record of 44-2, winning medals at the 2004 and 2005 Junior Mexican National Boxing Championships.

In the early stages of his professional career, the Mexican had two fights at light-welterweight but eventually stepped up to 147lbs.

It wasn’t until Alvarez was over 30 fights deep into his career that he would move up to light-middleweight, capturing the WBC title in 2011 against Ricky Hatton’s brother Matthew.

Alvarez’s move up the weight divisions continued in 2015 when he beat the gritty Miguel Cotto by a lopsided decision to win his first titles at 160lbs.

He fluctuated weight classes to stop Amir Khan and Liam Smith in 2016 and described his strict diet in an interview with GQ that year, revealing he only eats bread or rice once a week.

“I do two months of strict dieting, so after fight night I go for whatever my body is craving,” he said.

“It’s usually sushi. But after that I go home to Guadalajara and indulge in a lot of tacos before I have to start getting in shape for another fight.”

Alvarez first won the WBA title at 168lbs in 2018 against Rocky Fielding, but later vacated the belt due to inactivity.

His win over Billy Joe Saunders in May meant he only needs Caleb Plant’s IBF title to unify all four belts at 168lbs, something he will have the chance to do tonight.

The pound-for-pound No.1 fought at his heaviest weight in 2019 when he knocked out Sergey Kovalev to win the WBO light-heavyweight title.

Who wins this weekend, Alvarez or Plant? Let us know your prediction in the comments section below

Alvarez has not fought again at 175lbs, but told reporters earlier this week he would “love” to challenge himself against current unified champion Artur Beterbiev in the future.

And Alvarez’s longtime trainer Eddy Reynoso says he prepares his fighter with old-school approaches, drilling the fundamental skills with lots of repetition.

“I like the old-school combat training styles. I prefer the traditional boxing methods. I like lots of repetition, practising and drilling the basics over and over again,” he told SunSport.

“We want our fighters to always be improving and learning on their defence and offence. There are some good boxers and trainers who use different methods, like the juggling Lomachenko does, I respect those guys.

“But, for me, I don’t think that helps a fighter develop and I don’t think it helps the fighter’s career.”