Canelo Alvarez entered the ring for a comeback on Saturday in San Antonio, and he already holds the title of King of Sports. He left with a pair of world middleweight titles and a warning to everyone else wearing a belt when he said, “We’re coming for more.”
Alvarez won a major world title in the fourth division after beating Callum Smith in the Alamodome by unanimous decision (119-109 twice, 117-111). The Mexican star, who entered the WBA minor title, grabbed Smith’s full WBA belt and the vacant WBC Championship.
“I did an amazing job after 13 months of layoff. I’m very happy,” Alvarez said. “I am the best in the world. During the third round, I tried to see what brings him in terms of skills but I showed who I am.”
Not only was Alvarez in trouble, he easily removed Smith’s formidable seven-inch advantage by getting inside and pinning Smith to the ropes. Alvarez worked on the body and willingly divided Smith’s high guard with uppercase and stiff right hands.
Alvarez, 30, was statistically more dominant. He backed off Smith’s powerful shots left and right. Alvarez also beat him by a margin of 209 to 97 over the course of 12 rounds. In addition to taking down 43% of his punches overall, Alvarez has dominated 57% of his strong shots.
“I feel good at 168. I don’t want to fight on a scale,” Alvarez said. “After 13 months, I’ve seen what I can do. This is one of the best nights for me and one of the greatest nights I’ve had united titles. Soon, I’ll go for more.”
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Alvarez (54-1-2, 36 KOs), who also holds the WBA middleweight title, vacated the WBC Light Heavyweight title he won in 2019 and appears to be focusing on consolidating the titles in the Super Middleweight going forward now that To become a promotional and free agent network.
“I want to unite. I want all the belts and it doesn’t matter from there,” Alvarez said.
When asked if he could still imagine a three-way fight with rival Gennadiy Golovkin, one night after GGG defended his FIFA championship so easily at 160 pounds, Alvarez couldn’t help but move his eyes and smile.
“I’m not running away from no one,” Alvarez said. “I just showed that I fought against the best.” “If he’s going to fight, I’ll take it. But I have shown the world that I’m fighting the best.”
Smith (27-1, 19 KOs) was simply ineffective from start to finish. The 30-year-old Englishman performed better than his older brother Liam, who was stopped by Alvarez in the 2016 title match at £ 154, but not by much.
Smith said, “I had faith and never wanted to lose.” “I came here to win but this wasn’t my night. It was great tonight, so it was fair play for him. I had a sore arm and probably crossed the weight division. I didn’t feel as dominating as I used to but no excuses. He was the better guy tonight.”
Although Smith was able to go a long way, he consistently backed down and never proved willing to risk everything in order to have a chance to harm Alvarez. Much of it was the difference in speed between them. But Smith was also amazed at Alvarez’s talent and had an IQ at every turn.
“He’s smart and smart. It puts traps and keeps you thinking constantly,” Smith said. “Before you know him, he’s out there. I give him the credit for being smart. It was a good jab for a shorter guy. His defense was really good. It’s very hard to clean it up but it was exactly what I thought it would be.”
The entire bottom card delivered wins by stopping, but none was more impressive than Frank Sanchez’s TKO over Julian Fernandez. The heavyweight Cub hit his opponent over the course of the first six rounds of the fight before finally dropping him in the seventh round. Sanchez dropped him through looped ropes as the steps had already prevented him from hitting the ground. Sanchez now has 13 TKOs in 17 professional wins.
CBS Sports has been with you all the way on Saturday, so. Make sure to follow the live scores and features below.
Fight Card, Results
- Canelo Alvarez (c) defeated. Callum Smith via unanimous decision (119-109, 119-109, 117-113) to claim WBA, WBC Super Middleweight titles
- Marc Castro def. Luis Javier Valdes via TKO from the third round
- Frank sanchez def. Julian Fernandez via TKO 7th round
- Raymond Ford def. Juan Antonio Lopez via TKO from the 7th round
- Austin Williams was defeated. Isiah Jones via TKO First Round
Canelo vs. Smith scorecard, live coverage
| Canelo | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 120 |
| Smith | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 108 |
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