Canelo Alvarez will make the first defense of his WBC middleweight title Saturday when he fights welterweight contender Amir Khan in a bout contracted at 155 pounds. Alvarez is one of the most accurate power punchers in boxing, landing 48 percent, which is tied for third among championship-caliber fighters, according to CompuBox.
The saying “styles make fights” is overused in boxing. Saturday’s bout between the power-punching Alvarez and the speedy Khan will probably give that cliché a lot more run. We break down their styles by the numbers:
12.7: Khan’s hand speed
According to ESPN Stats & Information, Khan has thrown 12.7 combinations per round in his past five fights -- two more than noted combination puncher Manny Pacquiao in his past five fights. Over Khan’s past five fights, he has thrown at least 10 combinations in 49 of his past 58 rounds (84 percent), according to ESPN Stats & Information.
8.9: Alvarez chasing speed fighters
Alvarez has fought two boxers known for their speed in his past five fights: Floyd Mayweather and Erislandy Lara. Against those two, Alvarez averaged 8.9 punches per round compared with 21.5 in his three other fights. To compensate, he threw to the body 60 percent of the time, nearly 2½ times the rate in the other three fights.
4.3: Body punches might not work against Khan, who is known to clinch when opponents get close. In his three fights at 147 pounds, Khan initiated clinches 4.3 times per round when his opponents closed the distance on him. In his two fights in lighter weight classes, he clinched 2.3 times per round.
Background on the boxers
Alvarez won his championship from Miguel Cotto in November. Khan, from the United Kingdom, is a former junior welterweight world champion and will fight at middleweight for the first time in his career. If Khan can pull off the upset (he was a plus-350 underdog Thursday), he would become the third fighter to win world titles at junior welterweight and middleweight, joining Cotto and Oscar De La Hoya.
Against speed fighters, Alvarez has struggled, landing career lows of 22 percent of punches connected against Mayweather in a majority-decision loss and 23 percent of punches connected against Lara in a controversial split-decision win.
Khan’s speed is directly connected to his ability to land jabs and throw combinations. According to CompuBox, Khan lands almost eight jabs per round, which is the fourth highest among tracked fighters.
Both fighters on winning streaks
Alvarez is on a four-fight win streak since his only professional loss, to Floyd Mayweather in September 2013. The 2015 ESPN.com Fighter of the Year, Alvarez is the No. 1-ranked middleweight and No. 5-ranked pound-for-pound fighter according to ESPN.
He has held opponents to a 20 percent connect rate, the fourth-lowest opponent connect percentage, according to CompuBox. On the offensive, at least 40 percent of punches Alvarez has landed have been to the opponent’s body in three of his past five fights, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Alvarez landed 53 percent of punches to the right side of opponents (that is, Alvarez’s left hand) in his past five fights, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Khan, the No. 5-ranked welterweight according to ESPN, is on a five-fight win streak dating to December 2012. This will be his first fight at more than 147 pounds. He has a 3-0 record as a welterweight.
He lands 37 percent of his total punches (the ninth-highest percentage), according to CompuBox. Khan lands 20 punches per round, the 10th most, according to CompuBox.
Of Khan’s landed punches, 66 percent have been to the right side of opponents over the past five fights, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Looking ahead
If Alvarez wins, a unification bout with No. 2-ranked pound-for-pound fighter Gennady Golovkin could be next. Golovkin holds the WBA and IBF middleweight belts as well as the WBC interim title, making him the mandatory challenger. A victorious Alvarez would have 15 days after Saturday to agree to face Golovkin or risk being stripped of the WBC middleweight title.
On Thursday, Alvarez was a minus-500 favorite (a winning $500 bet would earn $100).
Note: An earlier version of this story said Álvarez won the title from Cotto in September.