Canelo Alvarez retained all of his belts and added two more this Saturday night, with him defeating Callum Smith at the San Antonio Alamodome. His collection is now wealthier for WBA and WBC titles.
The Mexican superstar beat the Liverpool-born via unanimous decision, with the judges scoring 119-109, 119-109, and 117-111. He became the first unified super-middleweight champion from Mexico.
Canelo (54-1-2, 36 KOs) was dominating the ring from the first bell, using his opponent as a punching bag. Even though undefeated so far, Smith (27-1, 19 KOs) didn’t have the slightest chance not to win, but to make a notable combination of punches.
“He was the better fighter tonight,” Smith admitted. “He’s smart. He’s clever. He sets you little traps and keeps you thinking. Before you know it, he’s closing the ground.”
I’M BACK! 👑
✅ WBC Super Middleweight Champion
✅ WBA Super Middleweight Champion
✅ Ring Magazine Super Middleweight Champion#CaneloSmith #TheP4PKingIsBack@CANELOTEAM pic.twitter.com/dQjrwXWcQZ— Canelo Alvarez (@Canelo) December 20, 2020
The Brit didn’t allow Canelo to post another knockout win, even though Alvarez wanted to send him down to the canvas. He would attack in the last round, inflicting several ferocious punches, but Smith withstood that pressure, making it until the final bell.
The difference was obvious not only in the ring but at stats as well. Smith landed 18% of his total punches, and 24% of his power punch attempts. On the other side, Alvarez had 43% of his strikes landing on the target, with 57% of power punches hurting Smith.
The Mexican was all over the rival, jabs, uppercuts, hooks, punches to the body, all that was seen in San Antonio last night. Some 15,000 fans who were present inside the arena (most of them Alvarez’s fans) had a chance to enjoy another superb performance of arguably the greatest boxer of today.
“I’m the best in the world. In the first round, I tried to see what he brings, the skills or whatever, but like you can see, I showed what I am,” Canelo said in a post-match interview.
After recently parting ways with the Golden Boy Promotions, many believed that such nasty turbulence might affect his mindset and morale ahead of this fight. That wasn’t the case at all.
As for the future, Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant are hoping to see themselves involved in a fight against Canelo. The first one is the WBO champion, while Plant holds the IBF belt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_QhObbYSqs
Though, the fans want to see Alvarez against Gennadiy Golovkin for the third time, because the GGG was the only one of all the active boxers who competed with him at the same level. Even though the Mexican has one win and a draw against the Kazakhstani fighter, both outcomes were heavily criticized.
The last clash ended with Canelo’s majority-decision win, but as after the first fight, a big part of the boxing community believed that the judges helped Alvarez. Golovkin too, had the same opinion. It seems that this still bothers the 30-year old, who didn’t specifically state that he wants another meeting with GGG, but indicated the same last night.
“I don’t run from nobody. I just showed that I fought against the best,” Alvarez said. “If he’s going to take the fight, I’ll take it. But I just showed I fight against the best.”
It is up to two fighters and their agents to sit down and negotiate the terms for the fight. If that happens, it could easily be the biggest one ever, even though Fury vs. Joshua should happen during the next year as well.
Nikola Velickovic is a sports journalist who loves to write and read on all sports. Nikola contributes both news updates and functions as a sports breaking news writer at WagerBop.
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Email: nikola@wagerbop.com
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