By Mark Eisner: Canelo Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KOs) easily retained his undisputed super middleweight championship with a wide twelve round unanimous decision over Jermell Charlo (35-2-1, 19 KOs) on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Canelo knocked Jermell down in round seventh, but wasn’t able to hurt him the rest of the way due to his safety-first style. Jermell fought like he was trying to survive and made it a boring fight to watch.
The scores were 119-108, 118-109 and 118-109.
Canelo has looked a lot better than this, but it’s safe to say that age is starting to show on the 33-year-old Mexican star.
If the top 168-pounders, David Benavidez & David Morrell Jr., had been fighting tonight, they would have easily knocked out Jermell within six rounds. Canelo looks like he doesn’t have it anymore.
Undercard:
- Junior middleweight contender Erickson ‘The Hammer’ Lubin (26-2, 18 KOs) won a questionable twelve round unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Jesus Ramos (20-1, 16 KOs) to capture the WBC Diamond title. The scores were 115-113, 116-112, and 117-111. The judges saw a different fight from the fans at ringside & on social media, as they had the 22-year-old Ramos overwhelmingly winning. Boxing News 24 had it for Ramos 8-4. Where Ramos may have gone wrong is by coasting in the last couple of rounds, and he allowed Lubin to edge them despite him doing very little. Neither fighter looked good, though, and both fought like they were afraid to get hurt.
- Former WBA light welterweight champion Mario Barrios (28-2, 18 KOs) looked outstanding tonight, defeating former WBA 147-lb champion Yordenis Ugas (27-6, 12 KOs) by a twelve round unanimous decision to capture the WBC interim title. The scores were 117-108, 118-107 and 118-107. ‘El Azteca’ Barrios, 28, dropped the Cuban Ugas twice in the fight, once in round two and another time in the twelfth. The 37-year-old Ugas was docked a point in the 12th round for spitting out his mouthpiece after being hurt. The knockdown in round two came from a hard jab from Barrios, and the one in the twelfth from a left hook. Ugas’ left eye was badly swollen. The ringside doctor checked on it several times but allowed the fight to continue. This was Barrios’s second consecutive victory since losing to Keith Thurman last year and Gervonta Davis in 2021.
- Middleweight contender Elijah Garcia (16-0, 13 KOs) put in a sparkling performance, stopping Armando Resendiz (14-2, 10 KOs) in the eighth round of a scheduled ten round fight. The 20-year-old Garcia nailed Resendiz with a big right to the head at the midpoint of round eight him. When Rosendiz got back up, his legs looked unsteady. Garcia then trapped him in the corner and was unloading huge headshots with everything landing fifth. Referee Tony Weeks had no choice but the fight because Rosendiz was getting royally hammered by the hard punching Garcia. The time of the stoppage was at 1:23 of round eight. What was interesting about this fight was how seldom the two fighters clinched. Even though they were fighting in close virtually the entire fight, there very view clinches. It was excellent to watch. Moving forward, Garcia will need to work on his defense because he was getting hit a lot by Rosendiz, and his offense was his defense in this fight. Garcia isn’t the fastest guy, but his power is similar to Gennadiy Golovkin, but he doesn’t have his jab or technical skills.
- Unbeaten Heavyweight contender Frank Sanchez (23-0, 16 KOs) kept his perfect record intact with a fourth round knockout victory over Scott Alexander in a stay-busy fight scheduled for ten rouonds. The 31-year-old former Cuban amateur star Sanchez dropped Alexander in the second round and was nailing him at will in the fourth. After the round ended, Alexader’s corner opted not to allow him to come out for the fifth round. A year ago, Zhilei Zhang knocked out the 34-year-old Alexander in the first round. For Sanchez to have to go four rounds to get the stoppage of Alexander, it shows that he’s not the puncher that Zhang is. Frank Sanchez’s management need to step up the pace that they’re bringing him along because he looks old for 31, and you’d hate to see him age out before he even gets a chance to fight for a world title. You can argue that Sanchez looks ten years older than his chronological age.
- 2012 U.S. Olympian Terrell Gausha (24-3-1, 12 KOs) kept his career alive with an eight round majority decision over journeyman KeAndrae Leatherwood (23-9-1, 13 KOs) in middleweight action. The scores were 78-74, 78-74 and 76-76.
- Making his third fight of his comeback, former WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk (20-1, 16 KOs) defeated Brazilian Isaac Rodriguez (28-5, 22 KOs) by a second round knockout in a mismatch. The 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Gvozyk knocked Rodriguez down with a big right hand to the head. The contest was halted by referee Tony Weeks after Rodriguez got back up. The time of the stoppage was at 0:54 of round two. For the 36-year-old Gvozyk, this was another impressive showing since coming back earlier this year after retiring in 2019 following a tenth round knockout lot to Artur Beterbiev. Isaac Rodriguez had recent defeats to Richard Rivera and Demond Nicholson.
- The big-punching light welterweight Gabriel Valenzuela (28-3-1, 17KOs) defeated Colombian Yeis Gabriel Solano (15-3, 10 KOs) in the sixth round with a hard punch to the midsection. The win for Valenzuela was his third consecutive since losing a close decision to Montana Love last year.
Canelo Alvarez will be out to prove that he’s still in top form tonight when he defends his undisputed super middleweight crown against his selected opponent, Jermell Charlo, who is coming all the way up from the 154-lb division to challenge him for his belts on Showtime PPV in Las Vegas.
The event begins at 8:00 p.m. ET for the main pay-per-view portion of the card and at 5:30 p.m. ET for the three-fight preliminary card.
Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) hasn’t looked like his old self lately, struggling through his last three fights, losing to Dmitry Bivol, and having major problems beating the shell of Gennadiy Golovkin & British fighter John Ryder.
Some boxing fans believe Canelo is a shot fighter from the tough fight he had with the highly skilled former IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant in November 2021.
$84.99 Pay-per-view card on Showtime at 8 pm ET
Canelo Alvarez vs. Jermell Charlo
Jesus Ramos vs. Erickson Lubin
Yordenis Ugas vs. Mario Barrios
Elijah Garcia vs. Armando Resendiz
Blueprint is there to beat Canelo
“The two men that beat Canelo Alvarez, what did they have? They had a great jab, they had great footwork, and they were counter-punchers. Floyd Mayweather and [Dmitry] Bivol,” said Tim Bradley to ProBox TV on how Jermell Charlo can beat Canelo Alvarez.
“The blueprint is out. There are two blueprints that’s out on Canelo Alvarez. Bivol had to throw over 700 punches to get the victory, but if he [Jermell] has that type of stamina and if he uses feet and box like, then he has a damn good
chance of winning this fight.”
The two blueprints that were created to beat Canelo were from fighters that were on another level than Jermell, and it’s difficult to imagine him being able to follow what they did.
Mayweather was a masterful boxer with lightning-fast hand speed and an excellent ring IQ. Jermell isn’t on that level. WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol was a bigger fighter with outstanding technical skills and was highly disciplined. Jermell isn’t disciplined, and his technical skills are far below that of Bivol.
Tonight’s 5:30 p.m. ET preliminary card on Facebook & YouTube:
Frank Sanchez vs. Scott Alexander
Oleksandr Gvozdyk vs. Isaac Rodrigues
Terrell Gausha vs. KeAndrae Leatherwood
“Remember, when Roy [Jones Jr.] went up to heavyweight now, he was 193 pounds. He thought a guy that was 220, 225 in [John ‘The Quietman’] Ruiz, and he outboxed him. He moved, he used his quickness to get in and out on him.
“Canelo can be outboxed. We know that. If Jermell can outbox him, can withstand, and one more thing. He has to make sure, Charlo, that he is rolling & slipping those shots instead of catching and bracing those impactful punches of Canelo because that can be damaging and draining in this fight as well,” said Bradley.
Jermell must slip punches
“So slipping, moving, using his legs, making Canelo fall short, he can tire him out and on the back end of the fight, there’s no doubt about it. He can definitely close the show and could pull off a victor,” said Bradley.
“And also, Tim, like like you said. Don’t take the flack from those shots. Like we’ve seen Canelo bust guy’s arms out,” said Chris Algieri. “Callum Smith, he literally targeted his bicep, targeted his arm.
“Canelo has that kind of power, that thudding beat you down kind of power, and when you got a guy who’s that much smaller than you, and we are going to say he is a smaller man, you can’t get hit on that those shoulders, on your hip bones. That adds up,” said Algieri.