In a one-sided contest, Canelo Alvarez punishes Callum Smith over 12 rounds to win a unanimous points decision
Canelo Alvarez took his already stellar career to new heights tonight, beating super-middleweight champion Callum Smith to become a legitimate four-weight world champion. Despite giving away several inches in both height and reach, Canelo dominated Smith over 12 rounds to relieve him of his WBA and The Ring titles that he had held since winning the World Boxing Super Series in early 2019.
The Judges scored it 119-109, 119-109, and 117-111, all in favour of Alvarez.
There were worrying signs for Smith fans as early as round one, with Canelo taking centre-ring and backing the bigger man up. Any hopes that Smith would be able to keep Canelo at bay with his long Jab were dashed as the challenger repeatedly landed his own lead left hand. While there was nothing damaging getting through in the early rounds, the fact that Canelo was finding openings spelt trouble for Smith.
In the build-up, it was unanimously accepted that Smith's best and perhaps only chance at victory was to keep the fight at distance and prevent Canelo from closing the gap. However, by round three, there was no gap. Canelo was backing Smith up onto the ropes with ease. The longer the fight went on, the less you noticed the considerable size difference between the two men.
As the fight approached its midway point, you could make a strong case for giving Canelo every round. Not only was Smith on the back foot and throwing little, but when he did let his hands go he was made to miss. Canelo's composure and head-movement in the pocket were simply first class.
The eighth round saw Smith begin to open up a bit and land a few hard shots, the type that have dropped previous opponents, but Canelo was unaffected by the champion's power and continued to walk him down.
After a torrid ninth round, Smith returned to his corner looking defeated and you couldn't help but feel he was close to being stopped. To his credit though, the Champion fought on to the final bell.
Canelo has now held major world titles in four different weight classes, including light-middleweight, middleweight, super-middleweight, and light -heavyweight. In 57 professional fights, he has lost only once. That loss came to Floyd Mayweather Jr. back in 2013 - since then he has been almost unstoppable. With that said, there are many who believe his draw with GGG in 2017 should have been a loss, and with GGG putting in a spectacular performance last night, fans will surely begin to call for a trilogy in 2021.
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