Saul “Canelo” Alvarez notched a 12-round unanimous decision victory over Austin Trout on Saturday to unify the WBC and WBA light middleweight titles.
Mexico’s Alvarez remained unbeaten, improving to 42-0-1 with 30 knockouts as he retained his WBC title and handed Trout the first defeat of his career to capture the American’s WBA belt.
“This is for my brother,” said Alvarez, whose brother Rigoberto was beaten by Trout in 2011 for the vacant WBA light middlewight crown. “It was a big motivation for this fight.”
The three judges at ringside scored it overwhelmingly in Alvarez’s favor: 115-112, 116-111 and 118-109.
Alvarez landed a sharp straight right that knocked down Trout seconds into the seventh round — the first time the American had ever been down.
“He caught me with a good shot,” said Trout, who fell to 26-1 with 14 knockouts. “I have no excuses.”
Trout acknowledged that the hard-punching Alvarez surprised him with his boxing skills and quickness.
“He boxed a lot better than I thought. He moved a lot better than I thought,” Trout said. “He shocked us. He’s a complete fighter.”
Thanks to the semi-open scoring system, Alvarez’s corner could advise their fighter he was ahead through eight rounds.
He went into defensive mode from there, but still won easily.
“Austin Trout is a very difficult fighter,” Alvarez said. “He’s a southpaw. But we were more intelligent in this fight today — and the better the opponent is, the better we will get.”
The crowd of nearly 40,000 at San Antonio’s Alamodome was pro-Alvarez, and the 22-year-old from Guadalajara appreciated their backing.
“I have a big responsibility and I’m very grateful to this crowd for their support,” he said.
FURY VS CUNNINGHAM
AP, NEW YORK
Tyson Fury stopped Steve Cunningham with a right hook five seconds before the end of the seventh round of their heavyweight bout to win his US debut on Saturday.
It was the 15th knockout for the Briton, who is 21-0. Cunningham fell to 25-6.
Nineteen of Fury’s first 20 fights were in the UK. His only other North American fight was an eight-round defeat of Zack Page in Quebec in 2010.
Fury taunted his US opponent by dropping his hands, exposing his chin and shouting “come on” during the first round.
Fury’s disdain cost him when he was dropped 18 seconds into the second round with a right hook to the chin.
Following the knockdown, Fury began attempting to tie up Cunningham on the ropes.
CLEVERLY VS KRASNIQI
AP, LONDON
Unbeaten Nathan Cleverly kept his minor WBO light-heavyweight belt thanks to a unanimous points win over German challenger Robin Krasniqi at Wembley Arena on Saturday.
The judges scored Cleverly’s fifth title defense 120-108, 119-109, and 120-108.
The Welshman improved his record to 26-0 (12 KO) and hopes to fight Bernard Hopkins..
Meanwhile the outclassed Krasniqi dropped to 39-3 (15 KO).
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