Canelo will face William Scull in Riyadh this evening to become a two-time undisputed super-middleweight champion.
Canelo is still young, aged just 34, but with 66 fights under his belt, it seems his time as the face of boxing is not destined to last forever.
Though he may be stepping into the twilight of his career, there are huge fights still to come, namely against Terence Crawford. Equally, Canelo has given the fans numerous epic nights of boxing, though not without controversy.
Canelo’s first two fights with Gennady Golovkin garnered much mixed opinion and debate, but the Mexican pound-for-pound star was actually involved in an equally controversial fight three years earlier.
Canelo scraped a controversial win over Erislandy Lara
In 2014, 43-1-1 Canelo took on 19-1-2 Erislandy Lara. Lara was the WBA super-welterweight champion, but the title was not on the line as the contracted weight limit for the fight was one pound over the super-welterweight limit.
Lara’s only loss at the time came against Paul Williams in a bout almost every fan and viewer scored for Lara.
Canelo, who was ‘Fighter of The Year’ in 2019, and Lara fought for twelve tough rounds, and when the final bell sounded, it was all up in the air as to whether the Mexican style employed by Canelo or Lara’s stick and move strategy would triumph.
When the scorecards were read out 115-113 Lara, 115-113 Canelo, 117-111 Canelo, many were shocked, including Lara himself.
According to BoxRec, Lara said: “This was worse than the Paul Williams fight […] We need to do an immediate rematch, and I will show that I’m better than him just like I showed tonight.
Oscar [De La Hoya] was a great boxer; he knows in his heart that this was a robbery, and so does Canelo.”
To this day many maintain that Lara was the rightful winner. He is now 31-3-3 after falling short in another close fight against Jarrett Hurd.
Erislandy Lara defeated a former world champion in his last fight at 41 years old
In his latest fight, which happened late last year, Lara proved age is just a number when he defeated Danny Garcia on the undercard of Canelo, who beat Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs Edgar Berlanga.
Garcia was 37-3 at the time, having lost only to Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, and Errol Spence, all on points.
Lara became the first man to stop Garcia, as his corner pulled him from the fight after the ninth round.
This was Garcia’s second fight in four years, with his last fight coming two years earlier when he beat Jose Benavidez Jr. by majority decision.