Daniel Gonzalez,

Las Vegas, NV – Mexican superstar and boxing’s biggest attraction, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KOs) not only pleased the Pro-Canelo/Pro-Mexican Cinco de Mayo weekend crowd of 20,203 fans Saturday night at th T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.  He unified and added the IBF middleweight title to his already impressive collection belts and continued his ascent to potentially being considered one of the greatest Mexican boxers of all time.  Canelo’s performance against the naturally bigger and dangerous Brownsville Brooklyn native, Daniel “The Miracle Man” Jacobs (36-3, 29 KOs) displayed not only his polished defensive skills and offensive prowess, he exhibited tremendous focus for a 28 year old who recently signed an 11 fight 335 million dollar contract with DAZN.  

Much to my content, the judges scoring of this bout was accurate and did not take away from the magnitude of this huge boxing event.  Canelo rightfully earned a unanimous decision from judges Glenn Feldman (116-112), Steve Weisfeld (115-113) and Dave Morett (115-113), despite a late round push by Jacobs to sway them in his direction. 

The unofficial compubox punch numbers demonstrated the story of the fight.  Alvarez landed 188 of 466 (40%) total punches to Jacobs 131-649 (20%) along with 120 of 264 (45%) power punches to 89 of 359 (25%).  Canelo’s power punch precision, along with his elusive head movement gave him the edge in this fight.  He clearly landed the more significant shots and caused the Miracle Man to consistently miss him when trying to land shots of his own.  Canelo’s collective ring generalship and defense appeared to cause Jacobs to uncomfortably switch between fighting orthodox and southpaw in an effort to try to use different angles to land significant punches of his own.  However, he was unable to put enough combinations and flurries together to convince the judges to see the fight his way. 

Another significant story in this fight was Jacobs disregard for the re-hydration and weight limitations that were included in the contract for the fight.  According to the fight contract, neither fighter could weigh more than 170 lbs at the 8am fight day weigh in, with the caveat that they would have to pay their opponent $250k/per pound over 170 limit.  Jacobs weighed in at 173.6lbs while Canelo came in at 169lbs.  Essentially, Jacobs invested nearly $1 million of his guaranteed $10 million pay day to have the size advantage over the smaller Alvarez.  Although, it was potentially an intelligent and sound investment, Canelo was still able to dictate the pace of the majority of the fight and did not seem phased by Jacobs size or power.  

In the post fight interview after the win, Canelo was poised as always.  Through an interpreter, he indicated, “I’m just looking for the biggest challenge. That’s all I want…That’s why I’m here. That’s what I was born for — to fight, to defend what’s mine. I’ll fight anyone.”  Of course the trilogy fight with Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs) would be the most lucrative fight for Canelo going forward, but a win over current WBO middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade (27-0, 17 KOs) would unify the division.  A win over Andrade, who is scheduled to face the tough Maciej Sulecki (28-1, 11 KOs) this June in his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island would make the Canelo/GGG match up even more intriguing.  All of the middleweight division hardware would be on the line in a huge unification bout. 

A question that we all have to address after this very big win for Canelo is how high on the pound for pound list does this land him?  Of the now top 3 or 4 pound for pound, Terrence Crawford, Vasyl Lomachenko, Oleksander Usyk and Alvarez, there is no questions that Canelo has the most impressive resume.  Where do you have him? Should he considered number 1? Or does he still have more to prove?

Daniel Gonzalez is a Senior Boxing Writer. Dan writes for many publications including Boxing Action Magazine, www.BoxingAction24.com and www.SideStepBoxing.com

Photo courtesy of Tom Hogan – Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions

Photo courtesy of Ed Mulholland – DAZN/ Matchroom Boxing