CANELO ALVAREZ claimed an incredible FIFTEENTH world title belt after ripping his latest strap off Billy Joe Saunders.
The Mexican pound-for-pound superstar, 30, wrestled the WBO super-middleweight crown away from the Brit in brutal fashion on Saturday night.
His trademark uppercut did the damage as Saunders pulled out from his stool after the eighth round and was rushed to hospital after fracturing his eye socket.
The unified champ was in the mood to celebrate as he added to his growing list of titles.
Canelo went into the Saunders showdown defending his WBA, WBC and The Ring super-middleweight crowns.
Alvarez won his first world title when he beat Brit Matthew Hatton in March 2011 to become WBC super-welterweight – aka light-middleweight – king.
After five successful defences he added the WBA and The Ring titles in April 2013 but lost them with defeat to Floyd Mayweather Jr five months later.
In 2015, victory over Miguel Cotto saw Canelo bag the WBC and The Ring middleweight belts to become a two-weight champ, keeping hold of them when he crushed Amir Khan.
He dropped back down to collect the WBO light-middleweight title against Liam Smith in 2016 before jumping up to middleweight.
The 5ft 9ins star retained The Ring prize in the controversial draw against Gennady Golovkin and stole the Kazakhstani’s WBA and WBC belts in the rematch in 2018.
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That win ensured he had reclaimed the WBC and The Ring middleweight crowns.
After that he stepped up to super-middleweight for a third weight division reign, taking the WBA belt off Rocky Fielding.
Canelo added the IBF middleweight against Daniel Jacobs then defeated Sergey Kovalev in 2019 to win the WBO light-heavyweight belt and a world title at a fourth weight.
Since then he has competed at super-middleweight, beating Callum Smith for the WBA, The Ring and WBC belts, retaining them against Avni Yildirim before the Saunders win.
The British underdog put on an impressive display against Canelo and was more than holding his own in the unification title bout before the Mexican’s devastating blow.
Canelo was already ahead on all three scorecards at the time of the stoppage and picked up at least £10.7million in prize money.
Chris Eubank Jr mocked Saunders after he pulled out and shared a video laughing at the ‘wet bag’.
The 31-year-old had bet £10,000 on Canelo to win the fight inside the 12 rounds and promised to give his returns to charity.
And now Eubank is clearly eyeing a big step up by calling out the WBA, WBC, WBO and The Ring super-middleweight king to try and take his four belts away in one fell swoop.
Demetrius Andrade confronted the champ in his post-fight press conference as tensions rose in the X-rated exchange.
However, Canelo’s next fight is expected to be against Caleb Plant.
Plant holds the IBF super-middlweight crown and therefore the winner would become undisputed king.
The 56-1-2 Mexican said: “The plan is to go for the other belt [Plant owns], I’m coming. I hope so.”
He put on an impressive display against Canelo and was more than holding his own in the title bout.
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Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
