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With his legacy on the line, Canelo Alvarez battles the ghosts of Mexico's boxing tradition

Related Topics: Mexico, Dmitry Bivol, Las Vegas, Toshiba

THIS PAST MAY 6th, one day before Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez lost, it would have been difficult to find someone in Las Vegas who thought that would happen. On that day, standing among the thousands who'd traveled from all over the country and farther, gathering outside at the Toshiba Plaza just to watch him weigh in, you would have thought all of this was little more than a formality.

That all of this was just part of the show before Canelo won his 58th fight and unified yet another championship belt. In those near triple-digit temperatures, the Mexican boxer walked on stage, past the mariachis playing "El Rey," the classic Mexican song about being underappreciated and having little but still carrying yourself like a king, and stepped on the scale.