In the first "super fight" of 2013 unbeaten men collided in a Light Middleweight unification bout as the WBA and WBC titles were up for grabs though sadly what should have been a great fight was marred in controversy as poor officiating and the WBC's "Open Scoring" destroyed any sense of tension.
The fight started excellently for Trout who dominated the round with his jab and seemed to clearly take the round with Canelo landing next to nothing of note, in fact the round seemed to suggest that Canelo was showing his inexperience as he made several glaring mistakes. Canelo came back excellently the following round as he started to cut the distance off and tied the scores on my card.
Rounds 3 and 4 were incredibly close with neither man managing to really establish themselves as a clear winner and when the WBC's semi-open scoring came in to play after 4 rounds it reflected the close nature of the bout with scores of 39-38 (twice) to Canelo and 38-38.
In the rounds 5 and 6 Trout seemed to step on the pace a little and forced Canelo on to the back foot especially in round 6 where the Mexican seemed to be tiring after an educated body attack by Trout. It seemed as if Canelo was starting to struggle with the pace and the attack of Trout. Though Canelo later claimed it was a problem with his leg (in the post fight interview) it was clear from watching it that he was struggling.
Canelo landed his best shot in round 7 as he dropped Trout with a wonderful straight right that dropped Trout for the first time in his career. Despite being dropped Trout got up and appeared to actually forced Canelo backwards for much of the round as he fought back well. Canelo appearedto end round 7 looking exhausted and Trout again appeared to clearly win round 8 against a lazy looking Canelo who really threw the around away.
Rounds 9 and 10 were hard fought with neither man managing to dominate, though Canelo did show off some impressive defensive skills and land the better shot even if Trout was visibly out working him. Sadly however by the start of round 9 the fight was over in the eyes of the judges who had clearly decided that Trout wasn't winning tonight unless he could score a knockout. The scores were so widely in favour of the Mexican that the bout the judges were watching were vastly difference from the fight that was being shown on TV.
With the result as good as known going into the championship rounds Trout did his best to try and step on the gas but Canelo managed to survive both rounds clearly giving away round 12 as he did nothing other than concentrate on seeing the final bell. Sadly round 12 was the result of the WBC's open scoring which had let Canelo know he didn't need to fight the round.
With the victory Canelo (42-0-1, 30) claims the WBA "super" Light Middleweight title to unify it with his WBC belt and he also adds the Ring magazine title whilst Trout (26-1, 14) suffers his first loss though he did take it very well. We've been left with possibly the right winner in a very close bout but the score cards need to be questioned, especially that of Stanley Christodoulou (118-109) which seemed to suggest that he had marked his card before the bout had even started.
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