LAS VEGAS – The years pass quickly, like a stack of photographs that you look back on with memories and thoughts of that time, accompanying the visions.

As Canelo Alvarez, now 34, appeared at a press conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday to announce his Saturday night fight against Brooklyn’s Edgar Berlanga, he showed how he’s grown from a 19-year-old who was punched by Jose Miguel Cotto in his Vegas debut to a much bigger player as a four-division, three-title super middleweight champion. It provided a flood of images to look back on.

This is Alvarez’s 19th bout in Las Vegas, a showdown he enters as an prohibitive (-1600) favorite against a 27-year-old undefeated challenger who likely pins his hopes on the “puncher’s chance” Cotto pulled off but failed to fully capitalize on all those years ago.

Looking back at all these fights, which I watched largely from the ring, it seems time to put them in a top 10: Canelo’s best fights in Las Vegas.

Naturally, we threw out the one-sided beating of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., the awful trilogy against his former arch-rival Gennady Golovkin, and couldn’t find room for his 2012 win over Hall of Famer Shane Mosley in a main event that featured two more Hall of Famers he was set to fight: Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto.

The countdown can begin:

10) Alvarez wins split decision (117-111, 115-113, 113-115) over Erislandy Lara, July 12, 2014: Lara, who defends his WBA middleweight belt against former two-time champion Danny Garcia in Saturday’s co-main event, says he still believes he won the fight that was decided by the narrowest of margins. That match spoke volumes about Alvarez’s willingness to take on complex fights, considering it came less than a year after his lopsided majority decision defeat to Mayweather.

9) Alvarez loses majority decision (117-111, 116-112, 114-114) to Floyd Mayweather Jr., September 14, 2013): Determined to take part in this fight after a landmark 154-pound title win over the tough southpaw Austin Trout in San Antonio, Alvarez, then just 23 years old, met Mayweather in the second fight of his massive six-fight deal with Showtime. Alvarez even agreed to come in two pounds under the weight limit to win the fight he sought as an ultimate testing ground that he hoped would serve as a career springboard. It was, but he was outclassed in the session as Mayweather picked him apart before ultimately praising Alvarez for landing some of the hardest punches he’d ever taken. The even scorecard from judge C.J. Ross is legendary, for all the wrong reasons.

8) Alvarez wins unanimous decision (117-110, 116-111, 115-112) over Jaime Munguia, May 4, 2024: I may be suffering from primal novelty, but this was an entertaining fight that saw the younger challenger from Tijuana take the fight to his older countryman before Alvarez began dissecting Munguia the way Mayweather had dissected him a decade earlier. Alvarez said he could have finished Munguia in the 12th round but spared him because he didn’t want to embarrass or discourage a fighter who still harbors super-middleweight title aspirations.

7) Alvarez wins unanimously (118-110, 117-111, 119-109) over Miguel Cotto, November 21, 2015: Alvarez told me last month that he felt this victory in Mandalay Bay over the Puerto Rican Hall of Famer was the threshold that would catapult him to superstardom. Alvarez repeatedly defeated the bout, but Cotto was getting older and fought only twice since that loss, which followed defeats to Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather. The win intensified the clamor for Canelo to let Golovkin challenge him for the middleweight title, something then-promoter Oscar De La Hoya was unwilling to do.

6) Alvarez wins unanimous decision (116-112, 115-113, 115-113) over Daniel Jacobs, May 4, 2019: A sublime defensive performance complemented by superior boxing propelled an increasingly confident and developing Alvarez over the respected Jacobs tonight at T-Mobile Arena. Alvarez’s elusive head movement and daunting power revealed the complete package and illustrated why the redhead from Guadalara had risen to pound-for-pound king.

5) Alvarez def. Amir Khan by knockout, round 6, May 7, 2016: In the first boxing main event at T-Mobile Arena, Alvarez lived up to expectations by crushing the naturally lighter but more daring fighter Khan, who led the scorecards right up until that dismantling right hand that sent the Briton unconscious to the canvas. Yes, most predicted the bigger Alvarez would get his way that night, but the highlight-reel punch was a defining addition to his career library.

4) Alvarez loses unanimous decision (115-113, 115-113, 115-113) to Dmitrii Bivol, May 7, 2022: After a suggestion that he would fight for a cruiserweight belt, Alvarez returned to light heavyweight after winning a belt there in 2019. He discovered against Russian Bivol that he had bitten off more than he could chew, that weight classes do matter. Bivol’s boxing skills allowed him to pepper Alvarez with neck-breaking blows, and while the judges were sloppy in awarding Alvarez points in each of the first four rounds, they quickly ran to the light and gave Bivol the justice he deserved while standing out as one of the few who were so unyielding in the face of Alvarez’s best punches.

3) Alvarez draw (118-110, 113-115, 114-114) with Gennadiy Golovkin, September 16, 2017: The buildup to this fight had been spectacular, as the two fighters surprisingly announced their commitment in the T-Mobile ring after Alvarez had laid waste to Chavez Jr. Most ringside spectators had the fight narrowly scored for Golovkin in a fight that saw each proud champion weather the other’s best punches. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez would later say that Alvarez backed away too often, but avoiding an all-out gunfight was just fine in the sullied eyes of judge Adalaide Byrd, who scored the fight a grossly wide one for Alvarez. The fight had preceded Alvarez’s positive test for clenbuterol, which earned him a suspension.

2) Alvarez def. Sergey Kovalev by KO, 11th round, November 2, 2019: To become a four-division champion that night, Alvarez had to endure some very entertaining neck-and-neck battles with the veteran champion from Russia. I remember Kovalev being ahead on my own scorecard as the bout reached the championship rounds. Myself and a fellow writer had apparently angered De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions with some of the writing we did and they tried to get us banned from the arena that night before DAZN stepped in and seated us both in two network ringside chairs, even closer to the ring, with a better view than the promoters. The beauty of that great vantage point came when Alvarez unleashed a right hand from hell to break up a vicious barrage that sent Kovalev crashing to the ropes and canvas.

1) Alvarez wins majority decision (114-114, 115-113, 115-113) over Golovkin, September 15, 2018: In the rematch, Alvarez did nothing but back down, answering trainer Sanchez’s taunts by taking the fight to Golovkin in a bold strategy that clearly earned him some much-needed extra points on the scorecards and set up a hugely lucrative deal with DAZN that ended prematurely amid legal battles with De La Hoya and a COVID layoff. Alvarez’s performance was everything his fans had been looking for, a forward charge and resilience through the power of Golovkin that had ruined so many others. The middleweight victory secured Alvarez, at 28, as the king of his sport, a crown he expects to wear again on Saturday night.