With a destructive barrage of power punches in the waning minutes of a difficult fight, Canelo Alvarez added another achievement to his overflowing list of boxing accomplishments.
The Mexican pound-for-pound superstar is the undisputed super middleweight champion of the world.
Alvarez became the first four-belt world champion at 168 pounds in boxing history on Sunday (AEDT), stopping Caleb Plant in the 11th round with two dramatic knockdowns.
Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) added Plant’s IBF title to his own WBC, WBA and WBO belts with a steady tactical performance culminating in a display of his vaunted power to finish the previously unbeaten Plant at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Canelo is generally recognised as the top fighter in the world regardless of weight class, and now he has complete dominance in one weight class.
He became the sixth man to be a four-belt champion, and he joined junior welterweight Josh Taylor as the only current undisputed champs of their weight class.
“I’m proud to be one of the six,” Alvarez said through a translator before dedicating the win to his Mexican fans.
Boxing gets frequent, deserved criticism as an institution for the promoter rivalries and fractious sanctioning bodies that prevent the best fighters from meeting each other far too often.
But Alvarez used his star power to join an elite club by winning all four major belts.
Only five men had ever achieved four-belt undisputed champion status since the feat became possible with the WBO’s advent: middleweights Bernard Hopkins and Jermain Taylor, junior welterweights Terence Crawford and Taylor, and cruiserweight Oleksandr Usyk.
© AAP
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