Saul “Canelo” Alvarez landed a devastating right hook to knock out Amir Khan in the sixth round to defend his World Boxing Council (WBC) middleweight belt on Saturday.
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The 29 year-old moved up eight pounds in a bid to claim the world middleweight title but fell well short of making a dent in Canelo’s awesome 47-1-1 record at the newly-built T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Against Khan, Alvarez needed only one big right hand to turn a close fight into a smashing knockout that left the British challenger out cold on his back in the middle of the ring.
“But I sat down and saw a few fights of Canelo’s and thought, ‘You know, this guy’s beatable”.
Khan (31-4, 19 KOs) took a huge risk by moving up eight pounds and two weight classes, from welterweight to middleweight, to challenge Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KOs).
The 29-year-old Khan started strong and even won the first couple of rounds before Alvarez worked his way into the fight at the brand new T-Mobile Arena. “My natural weight is 147 and I will be going down to that”, he said.
He impressed with his speed and combinations in the opening five rounds until Alvarez’s superior size and strength began to slow him down and leave him vulnerable to the knockout that followed.
After the fight, Canelo called out Gennady Golovkin, who was sitting ringside, and vowed to make a fight that everyone wants to see happen before the end of the 2016. Like we say in Mexico ‘we don’t f*** around.’ I don’t fear anyone; we don’t come to play in this sport.
Amir Khan May 7th Pay-Per-View is over, and it delivered one of the years most intriguing big man versus little man match ups that ended with a bang.
The Bolton fighter was knocked out in the sixth round by the Mexican WBC middleweight champion.
I tried as much as I could and trained very hard for this fight.
“Many people talk about my power but I’ve got many more qualities in the ring”.
Promoter Oscar de la Hoya stated, “Where’s Golovkin?” “You just want to enjoy every minute”. I invited him in (to the ring) to prove I’m not afraid.
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He added that he wants to go out as a champion. “I’d be happy to not only fight him but also to beat him”.
