Popular young Mexican Saul Alvarez (41-0-1, 30) successfully defended his WBC Light Middleweight title by stopping the brave but thoroughly outclassed Josesito Lopez (30-5, 18) in a completely dominant bout.
Lopez, a natural Light Welterweight, had upset Victor Ortiz earlier this year and got this bout as a "reward". Sadly, fighting 2 weights higher than where he is at his best, Lopez was no match for the physicality of Alvarez and it showed almost immediately with Lopez unable to make Alvarez even flinch despite landing his best shots.
Whilst Lopez couldn't hurt Alvarez, the same could not be said in reverse and Alvarez appeared to shake the world of Lopez every time he landed, sending the challenger to the canvas in rounds 2,3 and 4 as the bout immediately looked to be a one-sided beat down.
Whilst Lopez didn't go down in the fifth round he was hurt and this time Joe Cortez decided enough was enough and put an early end to this ritual beating that seemed in all honesty only to have been made to punish Lopez for beating Ortiz.
I'd now expect Lopez to drop back down to Light Welterweight where he could prove to be a real handful for any of the top fighters, however obviously the biggest story if about Alvarez. It's well known that Golden Boy Promotions are wanting to push Alvarez as the next great Mexican star however the youngster has yet to have a fight that has made the world really say wow.
As a "world level" fighter Alvarez has feasted on smaller men (such as Lopez, Alfonso Gomez, Matthew Hatton) or much older men (Ryan Rhodes, Shane Mosley) and there are major question marks about when will Alvarez fight a top Light Middleweight. It may be fair to say that Alvarez's next bout needs to be with a genuine top Light Middleweight or the fans may turn against the charismatic youngster. Another mismatch like this could well be the final nail in the "Canelo Coffin" and see him disregarded as a fraud by the boxing public.
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