In his first championship opportunity off the back of his premier career loss, Canelo Alvarez narrowly escaped with middleweight gold strapped around his waist.
In the midst of a three-fight winning spree, Canelo Alvarez had seen his WBC and The Ring light middleweight crowns fall from his grasp, finding himself on the wrong side of a lopsided decision loss against the unbeaten Floyd Mayweather.
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And while turning in an impressive string of wins in the time since, Canelo required three wins on the bounce to land himself back into title contention.
When he returned there, however, he could count himself lucky to begin a title reign for the second time in his career.
Canelo Alvarez’s controversial win over Miguel Cotto
By the time his 2015 showdown for middleweight spoils with Miguel Cotto rolled into town, Canelo was already well familiar with the Puerto Rican boxing family.
Challenging for the WBC and The Ring middleweight titles, Canelo was forced to the judge’s scorecards by the veteran Cotto — his second meeting with the familial name after his victory against Jose Cotto.
And emerging with the titles in tow in Las Vegas, Canelo took quite a wide victory on all three of the cards, despite the close nature of the fight.
The pairing was so competitive and back-and-forth in nature, in fact, that Cotto and his team, as well as his family immediately left the ring following the confirmation of Canelo as the bout’s victor.
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Canelo would compete at middleweight proper for the first time in his career that night against Cotto, before embarking on an incredible 12-fight unbeaten run.
Canelo Alvarez’s brutal knockout of Amir Khan
Following his controversial win against Cotto, Canelo returned to defend his middleweight crowns opposite veteran Olympian Amir Khan.
And signalling the eventual fall of Khan’s career, Canelo would turn in a blistering sixth round win over the Bolton veteran.
Exploding with a picture-perfect shot in the same round, Canelo dropped Khan to the canvas unconscious with the hellacious shot, retaining his belts before moving on to challenge Liam Smith for WBO spoils in another vicious performance against a British star.