Saul “Canelo” Alvarez was crowned the new WBO World super welterweight champion following his ninth-round stoppage win over holder Liam “Beefy” Smith at the AT&T stadium in Texas.
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Smith (23-0-1) is defending his WBO junior middleweight title against the hard-hitting Alvarez, who is moving back to the 154-pound class where he has plenty of experience and never lost. Canelo dropped Smith three times, including a vicious left hook body shot in the 9th round to end the beating. Golovkin became the mandatory challenger, but Alvarez promoter Oscar De La Hoya wanted to have his biggest attraction fight an interim bout.
The Mexican’s ramrod jabs began to land with greater frequency and it became a matter of when rather than if he would bring the fight to a close. I felt he was very strong in the beginning so I had to put the body work and felt he would dwindle, that’s how I did my job.
“He was too cute for me to be honest”, admitted Smith after the bout.
The former middleweight champion now boasts an impressive professional record of 48 wins, one draw and only one loss, which came against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Alvarez is one of the best combination punchers in the sport and showed it off with a attractive double right uppercut, counter left body shot that forced Smith to a squatting position with his gloves touching – a necessary break to catch his breath. The heavy favourite for this fight, you may recall he knocked Amir Khan out cold in Las Vegas four months ago.
The Scouse scrapper went into this as an unknown in America, but they know who he is today after he played his part in an exciting fight that needed one of the knockouts of the year to halt it. If you know me as a person, I’m not going there in fear and awe; I’m going there to beat him.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) – Canelo Alvarez knocked out Liam Smith and called out Gennady Golovkin.
“We’ll go back, obviously have a little time off, let the cuts heal and then go back in the gym and start working back towards another world title shot”, the 28-year-old said.
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But despite all this, Canelo Alvarez proved, yet again, that he’s a fantastic fighter – an especially frustrating fact because it’s so easy to be disillusioned with the Mexican star and his handlers right now. “I didn’t want to say anything because we respect all our rivals but he just didn’t want to accept”. “As I said, we are a team and I fear no one”. And even though many people may not like it, I am the best fighter right now.
