Katie Taylor once again showed her humble side as she met Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez backstage ahead of his world title fight with Dmitry Bivol over the weekend.
The Mexican suffered a shock loss to Bivol at the T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Taylor jetted in to the desert city for the WBA world light heavyweight title fight and was delighted to meet Canelo prior to the bout.
The undisputed lightweight champion told promoter Eddie Hearn that she was nervous as they walked into the four-weight world champion's dressing room, but the Matchroom boss told Taylor that Canelo had asked to meet her.
The 31-year-old was clearly delighted to see Taylor and congratulated the Bray Bomber on her recent win over Amanda Serrano.
He said: "Congratulations. Great fight."
Canelo then added "you deserve everything," before asking Taylor how she felt.
Taylor responded: "I really appreciate it. Thank you so much."
She added: "I feel great. I'm very, very happy."
Taylor later took to Instagram to pay tribute to Canelo after his defeat.
Sharing a picture from their meeting, she wrote: "Humble in both victory and defeat. Honored to meet a pound for pound great."
Alvarez moved up a divison to the heaviest weight of his career to endure 12 rounds in Vegas with the Russian, who joined Floyd Mayweather as the only people to beat the Mexican.
Bivol, also 31, landed cleaner and harder shots throughout the night, with Alvarez’s night summed up when he resorted to lifting his opponent during a clinch in the 11th round.
After three tight opening rounds, the Kyrgyz-born boxer began to use his superior height and reach to pepper Alvarez with jabs and largely kept him at bay for the rest of the encounter.
The three judges all handed down scores of 115-113 in favour of Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs).
Alvarez, whose last loss came via majority decision against Mayweather in 2013, said “of course” he wanted a rematch following the defeat, adding: “This doesn’t end like this.”
It came after the Mexican (57-2-2, 39 KOs) became the first undisputed world super-middleweight champion with victory over Caleb Plant last November.
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