By Mike Smith: WBA/WBC middleweight champion Saul Canelo Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KOs) outworked IBF champion Daniel Jacobs (35-3, 29 KOs) in beating him by a less than crowd pleasing 12 round unanimous decision on Saturday night in the main event on DAZN at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The scores were 115-113, 115-113, and 116-112. Boxing News 24 had Canelo winning 116-112.
Jacobs, 32, looked flat most fight, showing very energy and looking most of the time. Jacobs’ accuracy with his punches was poor. The main reason for that was Canelo’s excellent head and upper body movement.
After the fight, Canelo seemed less than excited when asked whether he wants to fight Gennady Golovkin again.
“I’m looking for the biggest challenge for my next fight,” Canelo said after the fight. “For me, I’m done, with him,” Canelo said about a rematch with GGG.
John Ryder vs. Bilal Akkawy – results
John Ryder (28-4, 16 kOs) destroyed #4 WBA replacement opponent Bilal Akkawy (20-1-1, 16 KOs) by a third round knockout on Saturday night to win the interim WBA super middleweight title on the undercard of Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Daniel Jacobs on DAZN at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ryder came into the fight needing a win to keep himself in position for a title shot, and he left no doubt about in dropping the hard hitting Akkawy twice in the third round to get the knockout. Referee Jay Nady stopped the fight after the second knockdown. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:12 of round 3.
Ryder, 30, came into the contest tonight having won his last three fights after having lost to Rocky Fielding by a 12 round split decision in April 2017. In the opening round, Ryder hurt Akkawy, 25, with a right hand that had him giving ground. Ryder continued to keep the pressure on Akkawy the entire time, not letting him breath and forcing him to trade shots at close range.
There was no letup at all from Ryder from the opening bell. He went on the attack and was pummeling Akkawy with shots. In the second round, Ryder continued to hit Akkawy at will with shots. Akkawy’s face started to redden by the end of the round. He looked dispirated like he had no idea what to do to keep the southpaw Ryder off of him.
In round three, Ryder caught Akkawy with a hard right hand that sent him down on the canvas. After Akkawy got back to his feet, he tried to hold to make it out of the round, but it was no use. Ryder continued to belt him with hard shots to the head and body. Moments later, Akkawy went down again under a hail of fire. When he got back up, referee Jay Nady halted the fight moments later after he recognized that he had no defense from the shots he wa getting hit with.
Former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux was originally supposed to be facing Ryder, but he suffered an injury training and had to pull out of the fight. Fortunately for Ryder, his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing was able to find a good replacement in the highly ranked previously defeated Akkaway.
Since losing to Fielding in 2017, Ryder has won his last four fights in beating Akkawy, Andrey Sirotkin, Jamie Cox and Patrick Nielsen.
For Akkawy, this was too much of a step up from the guys that he’d been fighting during his eight-year pro career. Going into tonight, Akkawy’s best wins had come against Giovanni De Carolis and Kerry Hope. Akkawy didn’t look that great against former super world champion De Carolis last year in February 2018. Although Akkawy beat De Carolis by a wide 10 round unanimous decision by the scores 99-90, 99-90 and 100-89, the fight was a lot closer the scores would have you believe.
Anthony Young stops Sadam Ali
Anthony Young (21-2, 7 KOs) used an all out attacking style to score a shocking third round knockout of former WBO junior middleweight champion Sadam Ali (27-3, 14 KOs) in a scheduled 10 round fight at welterweight.
Young, 31, hurt Sadam with a left to the body in the third round. Young then flurried on Sadam with heavy shots until referee Robert Byrd stepped in and stopped the fight with Sadam still on his feet. Sadam had just eaten two big head shots that made it clear that he was in bad shape. If the fight had gone much longer, Sadam would have likely been dropped. Young was teeing off on him at will shots. Sadam didn’t have the defense or enough to dissuade Young from bum rushing him. Young had zero respect for Sadam’s power, and that made it easy for him to unload on him with shots.
The time of the stoppage was at 2:38 of round three.
Young, 5’9” went after Sadm in the first round, nailing him with a right hand to the head that staggered him in the opening seconds. Ali was able to collect himself and weather the storm, but he took a lot of shots in the remainder of the round.
Despite Young coming into the fight tonight with a reputation of being a non-puncher, he looked powerful with the way he as belting Sadam with punches that was hurting him. Young appeared to be following the blueprint created by junior middleweight knockout artist Jaime Munguia with how he defeated Sadam last year in May by jumping on him immediately and burying him with power shots. Munguia dropped Sadam four times in that fight. Young didn’t show that kind of power tonight, but he was hurting Ali with his right hand power shots to the head, and his nice body punching.
This was a big win for Young, as was the underdog going into tonight’s 10 round fight. Sadam was supposed to win based on his pro experience at the upper levels, as well as his experience as an amatuer representing the U.S in the 2008 Olympics.
All Results:
Saul Alvarez W 12 Daniel Jacobs
Vergil Ortiz Jr KO 3 Mauricio Herrera
Joseph Diaz Jr W TKO 7 Freddy Fonseca
Lamont Roach Jr W 10 Jonathan Oquendo
Anthony Young W TKO 3 Sadam Ali
John Ryder W TKO 3 Bilal Akkawy
Aram Avagyan W 10 Francisco Esparza
Alexis Espino W 4 Billy Wagner
