Canelo Alvarez names the 5 greatest Mexican fighters of all time

Oscar Pick

Canelo Alvarez names the 5 greatest Mexican fighters of all time
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Canelo Alvarez has revealed his top five Mexican fighters of all time, admitting he does not quite deserve to be included on the same list.

While perhaps not in the top five, most would regard Canelo a Mexican boxing great, along with the likes of Julio Cesar Chavez and Marco Antonio Barrera.

Like those two Hall of Famers, Alvarez’s career has spanned over two decades and, even now, the 36-year-old continues to compete at the top level.

Having already become a four-division world champion and two-time undisputed king, the Mexican now hopes to reclaim his WBC belt after suffering a unanimous decision defeat to Terence Crawford in September 2025.

In order to do so, he must dethrone world super-middleweight champion Christian Mbilli in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on October 31.

And if he emerges victorious, then Canelo expects to enter three or four more fights – further cementing his legacy – before finally retiring from the sport.

As he closes in on 70 professional outings, though, Alvarez has told DAZN that he remains just outside the leading quintet of Mexican legends.

“[My] top five Mexican fighters [are] Julio Cesar Chavez, Gilberto Roman, Barrera, Erik Morales [and] Salvador Sanchez.

“We have much history of fighters in Mexico. I need to study like two years to let you know who’s the best.”

While placing them in no particular order, Canelo did name Chavez first and, rightfully so, the former three-division world champion is widely regarded as the greatest Mexican fighter in history.

He did, after all, cultivate an astonishing 115-fight career and defeated every opponent before getting stopped in four rounds by Oscar De La Hoya.

Salvador Sanchez and Gilberto Roman both saw dominant title reigns cut tragically short by fatal car crashes. Sanchez defended his featherweight crown against legends like Wilfredo Gomez before his death at just 23, while Roman ruled the super-flyweight division throughout the late 1980s as a two-time WBC champion.

In the modern era, Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales remain forever linked by their legendary trilogy, though both secured their own distinct history.

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