Floyd Mayweather Jr v Saul Alvarez

The unbeaten Floyd Maywather (45-0, 26) came out as "The One" as well as the WBA, WBC and Ring Magazine Light Middleweight champion courtesy of a majority decision (more about that later) over Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (42-1-1, 30).

The opening round was rather weird. Alvarez, the pressure fighter, oddly decided to try and box one of the best pure boxers in recent memory, this was simply a retarded game plan and one that was made to fail, as it did in the first 3 rounds. It was simply shocking that Alvarez would even try to outbox and out jab Mayweather who has one of the smoothest and fastest jabs in the sport today.

Thankfully, for the sake of entertainment if nothing else, the pace of the fight did pick up with Mayweather showing off his class as he landed some breath taking shots including a right hand that immediately bruised Canelo's face, a left hook late in the round and a second eye catching right hand. Whilst Canelo had some success, there was little more than a single right hand that seemed to land clean.

With Canelo in a hole he seemed to realise he had to change something and in round 5 he finally began to let his hands go. Unfortunately he found the Mayweather defense to be as impregnable as every other opponent and instead of landing shots he was being forced to eat more, especially the jab from Mayweather which was being thrown in combinations at times.

By now the Mexican fans were silent, they had cheered their man to the ring but realied he was out of his depth and as a "U-S-A" chant took over the arena.

If the first 5 rounds had been all Mayweather then the sixth was just a continuation of the same dominence. Again Canelo came forward and let his hands go, with little success whilst Mayweather landed at will, especially targeting the already bruised left eye of the Mexican. It was clear that Mayweather was targeting it and landing at will, in fact it was a shock that the eye wasn't beginning to swell from the clean right hands that pierced that Alvarez guard.

Whilst the right hand that had initially bruised Canelo's face had been excellent we had to wait until round 7 for the punch of the fight, a mind blowing uppercut by Mayweather that snapped the head of Canelo back. This was followed by a spiteful Mayweather flurry that saw him force feeding Canelo with right hands. At this point it seemed that Mayweather could, if he wished, finish off the Mexican.

Unfortunately after the amazing attack in round 7 Mayweather then seemed to take round 8 off as Canelo arguably claimed his first round of the fight. Although the Mexican didn't land too much he certainly out worked Mayweather and for the first time really threw in clusters making sure Mayweather was going to have to taste one of his shots every so often. Despite the heightened work of Alvarez the round seemed to hinge more on the fact Mayweather took it off rather than Alvarez winning it on merit.

Canelo seemed to build on his success in the ninth round as he again threw a lot, though unfortunately for him, and his legions of misguided fans, Mayweather did enough to just take the round landing the most notable shot, a huge right hand whilst Canelo himself missed with a vast majority of his shots.

The closeness of the ninth round was repeated in a similar round 10, though again Mayweather seemed to do enough to make Alvarez look silly whilst landing just enough to steal the round, despite an eye catching, though ineffective, flurry late by Canelo.


Unfortunately for Canelo his run of 2 or 3 competitive rounds was ended in a clear Mayweather round during the eleventh. Canelo, again through a fair bit but Mayweather did as he pleased. He landed a huge right right early, show boated with some eye catching pot shots in the middle of the round then taunted Canelo late in the round. It was the sort of round that whilst not technically dominant in terms of what was thrown it was dominant in terms of who controlled it and who was the boss.

 With the decision seemingly in the bag Mayweather did very little in the final round, a round that actually saw the fans booing due to a lack of activity by both men. There was little reason for Mayweather to force the action and Canelo was too slow to force anything of note.

To me there was only 3 rounds, if you were being generous, that Canelo could have won. The score of 117-111 that I feasibly had was reflected on the card of Craig Metcalfe, the card of Dave Moretti had some how found 1 more round to give to Alvarez (presumably the 12th as a "pity round") though then we get the simply staggering card of controversial CJ Ross. Ross some how had the bout 114-114.

How Ross came to that is a mystery, though I dare say it should be her last. This woman needs barring from judging, given some glasses and told to find a new job because she's awful at judging a boxing contest.

Austin Trout v Canelo Alvarez

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.

Saul Alvarez v Josesito Lopez

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.