Mexico’s Saul “Canelo” Alvarez beat Miguel Cotto on a unanimous points decision to win the WBC world middleweight title in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Alvarez, the favorite, lived up to his billing with a powerful display at the Mandalay Bay Events Center as the 25-year-old improved his career record to 46-1-1 (32 knockouts). His only loss was to Floyd Mayweather in 2013.
All three judges agreed Alvarez had won the contest comfortably, awarding him between nine and 11 of the 12 rounds.
Photo: AFP
“We knew going into this fight that it would be a difficult journey, but I feel that I was the faster and stronger fighter tonight,” Alvarez said. “I wasn’t hurt by his punches. I was fully prepared for what Cotto was going to do in the ring, whether that was take a defense stance or be the aggressor.”
No sooner was the fight over than talk turned to a possible clash with Kazak world champion Gennady Golovkin, the unbeaten WBA, IBF and interim WBC champion.
“I have respect for him, but if we do fight it’s going to be at my weight class,” Alvarez said. “I’m the champion, I don’t have to do what he wants.”
After a relatively even contest early on, Alvarez established his dominance over Cotto with a devastating series of blows in the eighth round.
Cotto, who lost for just the fifth time in 45 career fights, was stripped of the WBC world title earlier in the week after refusing to pay the reported US$300,000 sanctioning fee the organization demanded.
Had the Puerto Rican won on Saturday, the title would have remained vacant.
“I am not disappointed by the WBC’s decision,” Cotto said before Saturday’s fight. “It was all about money. The fee for this fight was absurd to me and I prefer to keep the money in my account. The organization wants four champions in every division just to earn a percentage from everybody and then we have to pay for their mistakes. I don’t need their belt. I have enough belts in my house and with the money I saved, I can buy any belt I want.”
In a wild fight on the undercard, Francisco Vargas seemed to be taking a beating and was half blinded before coming back to stop Takashi Miura of Japan at 1 minute, 31 seconds of the ninth round.
Vargas won a piece of the title, but paid a price to do it. He was knocked down once and staggered at the end of the eighth round, and the ring doctor looked closely at his swollen right eye before allowing the fight to continue in the ninth.
When it did, Vargas landed a sudden right and left that knocked Miura down.
He followed it by chasing the champion around the ring, finally landing a series of shots to the head that prompted the referee to step in and stop the bout.
Mexico’s Vargas improved to 23-0-1, while Miura fell to 29-3-2.
Additional reporting by AP
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