Mexican ring star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is already credited with one record during his nine-year professional career. On March 5th, 2011, Alvarez captured the vacant WBC light middleweight champion at the tender age of twenty, only months shy of the previous record holder, Fernando “Feroz” Vargas. Alvarez went on to defend the title six times in the next two years before facing off against one Floyd Mayweather Jr last September in the biggest boxing event in the last 10-15 years. Now Alvarez is coming back in the first quarter of the year in the first PPV event of 2014 in a special attraction twelve round bout against the rugged Alfredo Angulo on March 8th from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
On that night Alvarez will be in contention for another record but in fact he has already done his part in securing the special place in history. On the undercard of the first Saturday night in March, his brother Ricardo “Dinamita” Alvarez will challenge WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa. If Alvarez would defeat Figueroa and become a world champion, Ricardo along with Saul and older brother Rigoberto “Español” Alvarez will become the first Mexican set of three brothers in history to capture world titles. Rigoberto became a world champion by defeating Nobuhiro Ishida for the interim WBA light middleweight title. Despite the title being an interim one, many believe it is still a world title.
History is full of two brothers capturing world titles, Mexican or not. The best known of the era are obviously heavyweights Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko who until just recently have reigned supreme over the so-called glamour division of the sport. Juan Manuel Marquez and his younger brother Rafael have done it, Raul and Ramon Garcia have done it and Erik and Diego Morales have done it among others for the boxing world power from south of the border.
The honor of being the first set of three to capture world belts was captured by the Kameda brothers of the land of the rising sun, Japan. The oldest Koki is the WBA bantamweight champ and has defended the title eight times since capturing it back in 2010 against Alexander Muñoz. Middle sibling Daiki held the IBF super flyweight strap after defeating the tough Rodrigo “Gatito” Guerrero last year and the youngest, Tomoki, who back in August defeated Paulus Ambunda for the WBO 118 lbs title and has already defended it once.
It seemed as if the Alvarez would have competition from another Mexican boxing dynasty in the Morales brothers of Tijuana. Considered one of the best warriors to come out of the land of the Aztecs, Erik “Terrible” Morales has captured titles in four different weight classes. His brother Diego, known as “Pelucho” was crowned the WBO super flyweight champ back in 1999. It was expected that the last part of the triad, the twenty-two year old Ivan would soon challenge for a title and write the Morales family name in gold in the record books but now it seems that the southpaw super flyweight is taking a longer road to the promise land.
It only seems fitting that the responsibility of the record falls on the Alvarez family of Guadalajara, Mexico, since Rigoberto, Ricardo and Saul are only three of seven brothers, all boxers. Together they hold the record for the most amount of siblings to participate on the same fight card.
