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With chilling efficiency, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez retained his WBC middleweight title by turning the ambition of challenger Amir Khan into dust with a single right hand on Saturday night at Las Vegas’ brand new T-Mobile Arena.
Coming up from the welterweight division, Khan had been in control of the contest during the first four rounds, keeping Alvarez at a distance by employing a good jab and sporadic offensive bursts, particularly some hard right hands, along with active footwork.
Alvarez’s early efforts saw the Mexican loading up with headshots, most of which Khan easily avoided, but as the champion managed to get ever closer to Khan as the bout wore on, “Canelo” started to use an effective jab and go to the body with good effect.
In the fifth, Khan was cut by a punch and that distraction proved to be his undoing. By the sixth, Alvarez had gained close proximity with the Englishman and snuck in a perfect overhand right counter that caught Khan perfectly on the jaw, disconnecting the challenger from his senses.
Khan fell hard on his back, slamming down on the canvas, immediately prompting referee Kenny Bayliss to wave off the bout at 2:37 of the sixth frame.
Alvarez makes the first defense of his WBC middleweight strap, improving to 47-1-1 (33), while Khan, 31-4 (19), suffers his first loss since 2012.
The next fight looming for Alvarez is the biggest potential matchup in the sport – a showdown with WBA/IBF champion Gennady Golvkin, which Alvarez reportedly has a few weeks to arrange or he may risk getting stripped of the WBC belt.
The big question in that matchup will be at which weight will the fight be made? In the past, Alvarez has proposed 155 pounds while Golovkin has stuck to the divisional limit of 160 pounds. Perhaps 157 pounds will be the compromise that allows this mouth-watering showdown to occur this fall.
Jumping across the Atlantic, the other big card taking place on Saturday occurred at the Arena in Manchester, England, with WBA lightweight king Anthony Crolla putting his title at risk for the first time, meeting the challenge posed by heavy-handed Venezuelan southpaw Ismael Barosso.
Barosso had earned himself quite a reputation in the UK following his fifth round destruction of Kevin Mitchell in December and many were predicting a similar fate for local man Crolla.
The visitor appeared intent on producing just such a result as he set a fast pace behind a two-fisted attack but the South American was unable to catch the champion with the kind of flush punches which has dismantled Mitchell.
As a result of his destructive punch power, Barosso had previously only been past six rounds on one occasion and was clearly running on an empty gas tank by the seventh frame of his clash with Crolla.
The Manchester man noticed his challenger’s weakness at this point and launched an effective offensive that was capped off by a pinpoint right hand to the body that sunk Barosso for good at 1:31 of the seventh.
Crolla improves to 31-4-3 (13) and has now won two consecutive world title fights inside the distance while Barosso drops to 19-1-2 (18) after losing for the first time.
On Sunday, the action took place at Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo, Japan, headlined by the amazing super-novice two weight world champion Naoya Inoue, who defended his WBO super flyweight belt against Mexico’s David Carmona.
Carmona mounted the best performance of his career in this, his second world title challenge, as he held fast against the withering power shots of the champion, who had finished off his last five opponents in dominating fashion.
Inoue reportedly re-injured a problem right hand in the middle rounds, giving the challenger room to operate and mount a somewhat successful offense but the champion almost rang the curtain down on Carmona with a 12th and final round resurgence.
Carmona survived a flooring but lost a UD on scores of 118-109, 118-109 and 116-111, falling to 20-3-5 (8).
Inoue sees his record to 10-0 (8), including five wins in as many chances during world title bouts over two weight classes.
On the undercard in Tokyo, there was an epic firefight between IBF light fly boss Akira Yaegashi, 24-5 (12), and challenger Martin Tecuapelta, 13-7-3 (10), of Mexico.
Tecuapelta made a mockery of his modest won-lost record, giving Yaegashi all he could handle over 12 rounds, putting on a magnificent performance only to lose a split decision by scores of 116-113, 115-113 for Yaegashi and 115-113 for Tecuapelta.
