LAS VEGAS – The years pile up quickly like a stack of photographs that you look back on, with the visions accompanied by memories and thoughts of those times.

As Canelo Alvarez, now 34, appeared at another Las Vegas press conference on Wednesday to promote his Saturday night fight against Brooklyn’s Edgar Berlanga, his journey from a 19-year-old rocked by a punch from Jose Miguel Cotto in his Las Vegas debut to his far greater status as a four-weight, three-belt super middleweight champion provided plenty of snapshots to look back on.

This will be Alvarez’s 19th fight in Las Vegas, a showdown in which he will be the clear favorite (-1600) against a 27-year-old undefeated contender, likely pinning his hopes on the “puncher opportunity” that Cotto exploited but failed to fully capitalize on all those years ago.

Looking back on all of these fights, most of which I watched from ringside, it seems time to rank them in a top 10 order: Canelo’s best fights in Las Vegas.

We obviously left out his one-sided loss to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and the horrific three-way fight against former arch-rival Gennadiy Golovkin. We also couldn’t include his 2012 win over Hall of Famer Shane Mosley in a main event featuring two other Hall of Famers he would eventually face: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto.

The countdown can begin:

10) Alvarez wins by split decision (117-111, 115-113, 113-115) against Erislandy Lara, July 12, 2014: Lara, who defends his WBA middleweight belt in Saturday’s co-main event against former two-weight champion Danny Garcia, says he still believes he won the fight, which was decided by the closest of points. That fight was a testament to Alvarez’s willingness to take on complex fights, as it came less than a year after his one-sided majority decision loss to Mayweather.

9) Alvarez loses by majority decision (117-111, 116-112, 114-114) against Floyd Mayweather Jr., September 14, 2013): Alvarez, hell-bent on getting into this fight after his signature 154-pound title victory over tricky southpaw Austin Trout in San Antonio, faced Mayweather at just 23 years old in the second fight of his massive six-fight contract with Showtime. Alvarez even agreed to stay two pounds under the weight limit to get the fight he sought as the ultimate proving ground that he hoped would serve as a career springboard. It was, but he was outclassed in the session as Mayweather tore him apart before ultimately praising Alvarez for throwing some of the hardest punches he’s ever taken. Judge CJ Ross’s even score is legendary, for all the wrong reasons.

8) Alvarez wins by unanimous decision (117-110, 116-111, 115-112) against Jaime Munguia, May 4, 2024: I may be suffering from not remembering the preliminary round, but this was an entertaining fight, with the younger challenger from Tijuana taking the fight to his older countryman before Alvarez began to dissect Munguia the way Mayweather treated him a decade earlier. Alvarez said he could have knocked Munguia out in the 12th round, but spared him because he didn’t want to embarrass or discourage a fighter who still has super middleweight title aspirations.

7) Alvarez wins by unanimous decision (118-110, 117-111, 119-109) against Miguel Cotto, November 21, 2015: Alvarez told me last month that that win at Mandalay Bay over the Puerto Rican Hall of Famer was the defining fight that made him a superstar. Alvarez consistently outboxed his opponent but couldn’t outdo the aging Cotto, and Cotto fought just twice more after that loss, which followed losses to Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather. The win increased pressure for Canelo to face Golovkin for the middleweight title, something then-promoter Oscar De La Hoya was unwilling to do.

6) Alvarez wins by unanimous decision (116-112, 115-113, 115-113) against Daniel Jacobs, May 4, 2019: A commanding defensive performance complemented by excellent boxing helped an increasingly confident and developing Alvarez to victory over the respected Jacobs that night at T-Mobile Arena. Alvarez’s elusive head movement and daunting power revealed the total package and showed why the redhead from Guadalara had emerged as the pound-for-pound king.

5) Alvarez knocks out Amir Khan, sixth round, May 7, 2016: In the first boxing main event at the T-Mobile Arena, Alvarez lived up to expectations by defeating the naturally lighter but daring boxer Khan, who was leading on the scorecards until he landed a right hand that sent the Brit unconscious to the mat. Yes, most had predicted the bigger Alvarez would win that night, but that spectacular punch was a defining addition to his career.

4) Alvarez loses by unanimous decision (115-113, 115-113, 115-113) against Dmitrii Bivol, May 7, 2022: When it was suggested he would challenge for a cruiserweight belt, Alvarez returned to light heavyweight after winning a belt there in 2019. Against Russia’s Bivol, he learned that he had overreached himself and that weight classes do indeed matter. Bivol’s boxing skills allowed him to pepper Alvarez with neck-breaking punches and although the judges were lax, giving Alvarez points in each of the first four rounds, they quickly rushed to the light and gave Bivol the justice he deserved while emerging as one of the few to be so relentless to Alvarez’s best punches.

3) Draw between Alvarez (118-110, 113-115, 114-114) and Gennadiy Golovkin, September 16, 2017: The build-up to this fight was spectacular, with the two fighters unexpectedly announcing their unification in the T-Mobile ring after Alvarez had crushed Chavez Jr. Most ringside observers scored the fight narrowly in Golovkin’s favor, even though each of the proud champions endured the other’s best punches. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez later said Alvarez backed down too often, but avoiding an open exchange of blows was fine in the biased eyes of judge Adalaide Byrd, who scored the fight so far in Alvarez’s favor. The fight took place before Alvarez tested positive for clenbuterol, earning him a suspension.

2) Alvarez knocks out Sergey Kovalev, 11th round, November 2, 2019: To become a four-division champion that night, Alvarez had to survive some highly entertaining head-to-head battles with the veteran champion from Russia. I remember having Kovalev ahead on my own scorecard as the fight reached the championship rounds. Myself and a colleague had apparently upset De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions with some things we had written, and they tried to get us banned from the arena that night before DAZN intervened and put us both in two ringside seats that were even closer to the ring and offered a better view than the promoters. The beauty of this amazing vantage point came to light when Alvarez unleashed a hellish right to punctuate a vicious barrage that sent Kovalev into the ropes and to the mat.

1) Alvarez wins by majority decision (114-114, 115-113, 115-113) against Golovkin, September 15, 2018: In the rematch, Alvarez was anything but a back-pedal. He responded to trainer Sanchez’s taunts by taking the fight to Golovkin with a bold strategy that clearly earned him the extra points he needed on the scorecard and set up a hugely lucrative deal with DAZN, but it ended early due to legal disputes with De La Hoya and the COVID layoff. Alvarez’s performance was everything his fans expected: a charge forward and resilience with the Golovkin power that had ruined so many others. The middleweight victory secured the 28-year-old Alvarez the title of king of his sport, a crown he will look to wear again on Saturday night.