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Who’s the greatest Mexican boxer of all time?? It ain’t Julio Cesar Chavez or Oscar De La Hoya … boxing star Ryan Garcia tells TMZ Sports it’s “without a doubt” Canelo Alvarez.
We talked to the 23-year-old, undefeated Garcia on the way out of the Canelo fight … and we asked the Mexican American fighter whether 31-year-old Alvarez (57-1-2) should now be considered the best Mexican fighter of all time.
“Oh yeah, without a doubt. He’s the best,” Ryan says.
If you know boxing, you know Mexico has been the birthplace of some of the greatest pugilists to ever lace up a pair of gloves.
Cesar Chavez was a multiple-time world champion across several weight classes … including super featherweight, lightweight, light welterweight, and lightweight. He was considered the world’s top pound-for-pound boxer in the early ’90s.
Julio — who fought 115 professional fights (107-6-2) — defended his title 27 times, a record. He beat Héctor Camacho and Roger Mayweather, just to name a few.
De La Hoya — an Olympic gold medalist — won 11 titles across 6 weight classes … and beat guys like Héctor Camacho, Fernando Vargas, Ricardo Mayorga, Pernell Whitaker, and Arturo Gatti.
FYI, Oscar and Julio actually fought each other twice … with De La Hoya winning both. Though, their first fight in 1996 was stopped largely due to a gash that reopened up (he originally got the cut in training camp) above Chavez’s left eye.
The fighters rematched in 1998 … and Oscar won via 8th round TKO.
As for Canelo, he’s only lost 1 fight in his career — to Floyd Mayweather in 2013 — as a 23-year-old fighter.
So, we asked Garcia if today’s version of Alvarez would beat Floyd.
“Most definitely. [Canelo’s] focus, he’s got everything on lock. He knows what to do now. He knows how to approach a fighter who keeps moving, and that’s what he did today [against Caleb Plant].”
We also ran into Elie Seckbach from EsNews … and asked him whether Alvarez had a chance to go down as the greatest boxer of all time (watch out Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson & Floyd).
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Back to Ryan. We couldn’t let the 21-0 fighter — who recently underwent surgery for a hand injury — go without getting a health update … asking the lightweight contender when we’d see him back in the ring.
“By February or March, I’m coming for everybody’s head.”