Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KO’s) defeated Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KO’s) by unanimous decision to capture the WBC middleweight title, which Cotto relinquished earlier this week. The official scores at ringside were 117-111, 119-109 and 118-110.
Canelo became just the second Mexican to win a middleweight title after Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. did it 2011. Cotto, who was the WBC champion coming into the bout, decided to forfeit the title rather than pay the sanctioning fee that the governing body demanded.
While Canelo weighed-in at the agreed upon catch weight of 155 pounds a day earlier, he was clearly the bigger man in the ring. Cotto who weighed-in at 153 pounds seemed to only put on a few more pounds coming into the day of the fight.
Unlike the disappointment of the Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao May 2 super fight, Canelo-Cotto added another chapter in the Mexican-Puerto Rico boxing rivalry by competing in an entertaining and hard fought battle that was often times compelling.
Cotto succeeded in turning the contest into a boxing match, but his punches had little to no effect on the larger Canelo save for a few knots on the Mexican’s cheekbones. Canelo’s punches, on the other hand, moved and rocked Cotto when connected.
From the opening round, Cotto was on his toes moving around the ring to stay out of the crosshairs of Canelo’s superior power. While Canelo stalked his way through the first few rounds looking to measure Cotto, Cotto was nimble on his feet and worked tirelessly to establish the jab. The game plan seemed work until the 25-year-old Canelo realized Cotto could not hurt him That is when Canelo started to establish his will over the battle-tested warrior from Caguas, Puerto Rico.
Following seven rounds of high-skilled boxing, a fight broke out in round eight as Cotto developed a sense of urgency to try to get back into the fight. Both fighters landed heavy left hooks to the body, but it was Canelo who was able to follow up with additional right hands to Cotto’s head.
Canelo took a stand in the 12th and final round by hurting Cotto with a bruising body shot and then opening up a cut over Cotto’s left eye. With just over a minute left in the bout, Cotto pawed at the blood to keep it out of his eye as Canelo peppered him with stinging left and right hooks.
Though the scores were wider than what the action suggested, both men showed tremendous respect for one another. An emotional Canelo rejoiced in the victory with his trainers as he credited them for the win.
“This is a big win for me,” Canelo said to Max Kellerman immediately after the scorecards were read. “This is a big win not only for me but for my country, my family, and my trainer. I didn’t know what a jab was.”
Kellerman then asked the big question about a unification showdown with Gennady Golovkin, who hold holds the WBA, IBF, IBO, and the interim WBC middleweight belts.
“Before this fight I didn’t want to answer this question,” Canelo said. “But now he (Golovkin) can put the gloves on. We can do it right now. He is a great champion and a friend of mine, but we can do it now.”
It’s been widely reported that the WBC will give Canelo 14 days to make a deal to face Golovkin or risk being stripped of the title. Canelo went on talk about how the bout with Golovkin could be made if it does get made.
“I am not afraid of any fighter. GGG is a great fighter, but if we do fight it’s going to be at my weight,” Canelo said. “I’m the champion. I don’t have to do what he wants.”
While Cotto was one of the greatest fighters of the past decade, Canelo announced to the crowd that the era of Canelo has begun.
Cotto stormed out of the ring before he can be interviewed and went into the locker room accompanied by his wife and children. Roc Nation head Jay-Z stopped by the locker room to offer warm words for his fighter.
Freddie Roach was pleased with Cotto’s performance in the fight.
“We thought it was much closer than the scorecards showed,” said Roach. “It was a very competitive fight. Miguel’s defense was unbelievable.”
In an absolute hellacious back and forth slugfest which will be a candidate for fight of the year, Francisco Vargas (23-0-1, 17 KO’s) came from behind and walked through fire to defeat Takashi Miura (29-3-2, 22 KO’s) by TKO in round 9 to capture the WBC World super featherweight title.
After nearly being stopped at the end of round eight Vargas, with his right eye closed from cuts to both below and above the eye, came out to start round nine with a vengeance.
Vargas hurt Miura with a giant left uppercut which set up a perfect straight right hand to send the tough Japanese fighter down.
Miura got right back up but was never stable on his feet. Vargas proceeded to land 33 power shots while Miura tried everything to hang on for dear life. Vargas continued pouring on the pressure until referee Tony Weeks jumped in to stop the bout.
The situation was so dire for Vargas that the doctors were checking on his severely injured right eye in between rounds to see if he was able to continue.
With one eye closed Vargas celebrated the hard fought victory by exclaiming “I’m the champ! I’m the champ!”
“This is a dream come true for me,” said Vargas. “ This is something I have been fighting for my whole life.”
Vargas got off to a fast start blitzing Miura with an overhand right that almost scored a knockdown.
Miura, however, fought back and opened up a cut under Vargas’ right eye in round two. The cut would grow to look gruesome as a second cut opened up above the eye.
Both fighters took turns pummeling each other with body shots that reverberated across the arena. It was a body shot by Miura that set up a perfectly planted left cross that dropped Vargas for the first time in his career professional or amateur.
Vargas made it back to his feet, but his eye was gushing blood. Miura went in for the kill but could not put the fight away, and it would cost him dearly.
Miura hurt Vargas again in round five with a bruising body shot while Vargas did his best to hang on returned fire with body shots of his own.
Making his first appearance since last December and his first since joining the Roc Nation Sports boxing stable two-time gold medal winner and master technician Guillermo Rigondeaux (16-0, 10 KO’s) defeated Drian Francisco (28-4-1, 22 KOs) in an uneventful 10-round unanimous decision victory. The official scorecard was 97-93 and 100-90 X2.
Widely regarded as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the sport, the Cuban boxing legend landed only 72 punches in the entire bout to 42 connected for the Filipino Francisco much to the chagrin of the fans who showered the arena with boos.
Rigondeaux accepted the assignment on just two weeks’ notice after another recently signed Roc Nation star Andre Ward pulled out of the PPV slot with a leg injury.
Rigondeaux outclassed Francisco and resigned himself to an easy sparring session rather than to try to put Francisco away.
“I feel terrific,” Rigondeaux said immediately after the victory. “My style outmatched his. It’s been 11 months since I’ve been in the ring and I definitely felt some cobwebs.”
Rigondeaux acknowledged he needs to give fans some more action in the future and pointed to the layoff for the lack of output of punches.
“I promise that with the tools I have now after signing with Roc Nation that next time I’ll be explosive.”
Francisco disagreed and blamed Rigondeaux for the lackluster bout.
“Rigondeaux is not a fighter, he is a runner,” said Francisco. “He is afraid of getting hurt and doesn’t want to fight.”
Rigondeaux, who won gold medals for Cuba in both the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Olympics, looks to be headed towards a showdown with fellow two-time Olympic gold medal winner Vasyl Lomachenko.
In the opening bout of the telecast and another version the Mexico vs. Puerto Rico theme of the evening, Mexican-American featherweight Ronny Rios (25-1, 10 K0’s) triumphed over previously unbeaten Jayson Velez (23-1-1, 16 KO’s) by 10-round unanimous decision. The official scores at ringside were 97-92, 95-94, 96-93.
Velez came into the bout as an undefeated contender looking to earn a world title shot but instead ran into a motivated Rios, who turned in a career-defining performance, dominating the better part of the bout.
Rios found a home for the overhand right all night and even flirted with disqualification after landing a few low blows in the first few rounds of the bout.
After repeated warnings, referee Jay Nady took a point away in round five. The loss of the point may have helped Rios to start targeting Velez’s chest and chin.
Rios picks up his second consecutive win following a shocking knockout loss to Robinson Castellanos a year ago.
– Vladimir Lik @vladimirlik
Leave a Reply