Struggling with Amir Khan’s speed, Alvarez unleashed a long right hand that send Khan backward on the canvas, where referee Kenny Bayless didn’t even bother to count him out at 2:37 of the sixth round.
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Later, Khan defiantly insisted he was okay while he was taken to hospital as a precaution.
Khan, 29, jumped two weight divisions to challenge Alvarez and was bidding to become only the third former light-welterweight world champion to win a middleweight world title. I tried as much as I could and trained very hard for this fight. “But I knew they would come to my favor as the fight went on”.
“I got in the ring with a big guy, but this is boxing”, Khan said after the fight, looking suitably recovered.
“I will probably go down to 147 now”. In his post-fight interview, Canelo Alvarez made a big “drama” show (which seems appropriate here) touting his fighting spirit in relation to a proposed bout with Gennady Golovkin. He has his charity – The Amir Khan Foundation – which is doing work in the United Kingdom and Pakistan, among other places, and he has a young daughter at home that he does not see when he is in training camp. Amir has set the tone.
The fight itself had been going reasonably well for Khan in the opening rounds as he fought from distance and frustrated Alvarez at times.
Khan, who fought above welterweight for the first time, said his plan was to drop back down.
Asked about the scoring, Alvarez’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya said: ‘I had it even. I was anxious.
Khan was the clear underdog for the fight with the physically bigger Mexican, who at just 25 years old had won 46 of his 48 fights – his sole defeat coming against the unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. “It was a human reaction to make sure he was okay and I’m glad he appears to be”.
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“I’ll fight him right now”. “I don’t fear anyone”. But Alvarez (47-1-1, 33 KO) started cutting off the ring better in the fourth round, and taking Khan’s legs away slowly but surely with body shots.
