Canelo-Smith final punch stats

By Boxing News - 09/18/2016 - Comments

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By Eric Baldwin: Surprisingly, the final punch stat numbers from last Saturday night’s contest between WBO junior middleweight champion Liam “Beefy” Smith and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez were fairly close for their fight at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Canelo knocked out Smith in the 9th round with a left to the body that had the British fighter rolling around in pain on the canvas in front of 51,240 fans.

What separated the two fighters was the power from Canelo’s shots, as he was simply the much stronger fighter of the two due to his weight and strength advantage. Smith tried his best, but he was too weak and outweighed by Canelo last night.

We don’t what the weight difference was between the two fighters, but it looked to me like Canelo was at least 10 pounds heavier than Smith.

Canelo connected on 157 of 422 punches for a connect percentage of 37, according to CompuBox. For his part, Smith landed 115 of 403 punches for a connect rate of 29%.

The main difference between the two fighters was the power on their shots. You can’t blame Smith for not being able to punch with the same authority that Canelo was hitting with, because it was a natural middleweight against a natural junior middleweight last night.

No matter what Canelo and his promoter Oscar De La Hoya want to say about the Mexican fighter not being a middleweight, he clearly is. Canelo looked like he was well over 170 pounds last night, possibly even 180. For Canelo not to be up front about his weight is disappointing, because if you’re rehydrating into the mid-170s to low 180s, it clearly makes you a middleweight.

“I told you I was going to give you a great fight and bring you the championship, and here it is,” Alvarez said after the fight. “I started controlling him, but in the second round I hurt my hand. I hurt my right hand, so I had to use my left more often. I only used sparingly my right hand, but that’s what happened.”

I wouldn’t say it was a great fight. It was a fight, but not a great one. For a fight be great, it must have some drama that makes the boxing fans think there’s a chance for either fighter to win. Smith, 28, never appeared to be on the verge of winning the fight. It looked more like a sparring session with Canelo fighting a sparring partner for the most part.

It’s good news that Smith wasn’t hurt last night, considering that he took a lot of punishment from Canelo, especially in rounds seven through nine. For the boxing fans to see Canelo in a “great fight,” he’s going to need to be put in the ring with the likes of Gennady “GGG” Golovkin or Daniel Jacobs. Even someone like Demetrius Andrade or Jermall Charlo might have the talent to really test Canelo to his limits. It’s interesting that Golden Boy chose to pass on those guys and select Liam Smith for Canelo last night. I wonder why they selected Smith?

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