Here's an HBO Sports "Ring Life" feature on Mexican boxing star Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, who faces Ryan Rhodes on the June 18 edition of Boxing After Dark.
What I like most about this is that this is the same "Ring Life" that was promoted before Alvarez's March win over Matthew Hatton, but HBO re-uploaded it on June 1 for this fight. Still, it's a nice look at the 20-year-old star, and if you missed it the first time around, it is new to you.
Most interesting to me is the bit with Alvarez's brother, Rigoberto, who himself is a credible pro fighter but not on Canelo's level, and it's interesting to know how far back Rigoberto saw that:
Saul: "My brother Rigo got me into boxing. I was only twelve when he made his professional debut. I started training because of him."
Rigoberto: "When I put gloves on him for the first time, I was stunned to see his talent. He told me, 'I want to be like you.' So I responded: 'No, you will be better.'"
There have been times in the last year where I looked at Alvarez with a more critical eye, in a way searching for what he's not good at, because he's obviously already very good. I do that not because I don't like him, but because he's already so advanced for his age that it is, for me, interesting to try to find areas where he can and perhaps even likely will improve with further experience. But when you go deeper than just who he is in the ring, I think it's easy to see that he's got the drive to be truly great in time, and seems to have the right surroundings with his team, too.