Canelo Remains King in Texas; Kirkland KO’ed in 3
Tonight in Houston, Texas’s Minute Maid Park, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) made easy work of fearsome James Kirkland (32-2-0, 28 KOS).
The Mandigo Warrior lay on his back long after the 24-year-old Mexican star landed a devastating over hand right that exploded into Kirkland’s face and sent him to bed in the third round.
Despite having relatively few years on this planet, Canelo took advantage of his much more mature ring age—having nearly three times more rounds of boxing under his belt than his opponent tonight, and facing the likes of Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather, Jr., not to mention some real deal fighters at 154 like Erislandy Lara, Alfredo Angulo, and Austin Trout. Fighting professionally since he was 15 years old, Alvarez is amazingly only one fight shy at 47 bouts of soon-to-be- retiring, 38-year-old Floyd Mayweather’s 48 fights.
Much talk in the media has been that the warrior from Juanacatlán, Jalisco, Mexico will serve as the face of boxing now that the aforementioned Money Mayweather will no longer be the big draw in professional boxing. And if tonight is any indication, boy, did this young man sure deliver, redirecting the smothering pressure of his opponent who for about 1 minute and 15 seconds bum rushed Canelo and had the carrot-topped fighter put his earmuffs on.
But like the true pro that he is, Canelo dismissed the seemingly more aggressive fighter and settled him down with disciplining laser-like shots that were as accurate and as punishing as they come in the fight game.
Now much can be said that Kirkland’s L was the result of letting go of Anne Wolfe, the trainer who instilled in him the fight spirit and discipline that earned him the moniker of “little Tyson” in the junior middleweight division. Or it could have been from ring rust. (Kirkland has been inactive for a year and a half.) Or maybe it was because Justin Bieber didn’t walk out with him to the ring.
But when it comes right down to it, in the fight game, it’s about hitting and not getting hit. Tonight in Texas, Alvarez put his man away with a classic old school boxing move that HBO color commentator and ring beast Roy Jones, Jr. described as “look down but come up.”
Having Kirkland against the ropes, Canelo placed a feeler left jab to the belly of his man, having Kirkland think that Alvarez would follow with a stabbing right hand to the stomach. Instead, Alvarez took the opportunity to do what is known as leveling in boxing by quickly attacking from different territory than expected. In essence, he came up when Kirkland was expecting down.
And we all saw the results.
To put on such an impressive and decisive show and announcing in his post-fight ring interview that he’s ready for “GGG” Gennady Golovkin, one can only dream about what a war that would be. And let’s not forget the much talked about fight with Miguel Cotto who fights game Aussie Daniel Geale this June 6th in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
Either way, Golovkin or Cotto, Saul Alvarez looks ready for all comers.
Article by Ryan Agius, Contributor for BehindTheGloves.com
Leave a Reply