Canelo Alvarez ‘ready for triumph’ against Sergey Kovalev

With world titles at 154, 160, and 168, and a rise to a level of stardom few in boxing ever achieve, Canelo Alvarez has already made his mark in the boxing world at the age of 29.

On Saturday, he goes for even more, moving up to 175 pounds to face WBO titleholder Sergey Kovalev in a DAZN main event.

Tuesday was exactly 14 years since Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KO) made his pro debut in Tonala, Mexico, and all these years later he was walking a red carpet at the Grand Arrivals event for a big fight in Las Vegas.

”As always, I’m very grateful that everybody is here, I’m very honored and I’m ready,” he said. “This is very important for myself, for my career, for my history, for my family, for my team. To be a world champion in four different weight classes would be another chapter of my story.”

Canelo will face some disadvantages on paper against Kovalev (34-3-1, 29 KO), who may be older at 36, but is also naturally taller and longer, a legitimate light heavyweight who has spent his entire terrific career at that weight.

”Everything has been different, the weight, the training,” Canelo said. “I can’t wait to see how it goes on Nov 2. I’ll do my best.”

If he wins on Saturday, he’ll be a world champion in a fourth weight class. You’d have to expect that light heavyweight is as high as he can ever truly dare to fight, but there probably weren’t many expecting him to ever take a real fight in-prime at 175 in the first place.

The fans were out to greet him on Tuesday, as always, and he was happy to see it.

“It’s very motivating,” he said of the pro-Canelo turnout. “This motivates me and I’m ready for triumph.”