Canelo Alvarez vs. Jermell Charlo: LIVE round-by-round updates, official results and full coverage of the super middleweight championship fight in Las Vegas.
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Super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez dropped and defeated overmatched Jermell Charlo by a one-sided decision to retain his titles.
The official scores were 119-108, 118-109 and 118-109. Boxing Junkie also scored it 118-109 for Alvarez, 10 rounds to two.
Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KOs) applied overwhelming pressure on Charlo (35-2-1, 19 KOs) from the second round on, consistently landing punishing blows to the head and body.
Charlo, who had moved up two divisions for the fight, tried to move and pepper Alvarez with quick blows to keep him at bay but he didn’t throw enough punches or have enough power to earn Alvarez’s respect.
Alvarez put Charlo down in Round 7, when a straight right dazed the challenger and forced him to take a knee.
Charlo survived that punch and proved to be both durable and clever enough to last the entire 12 rounds against a naturally bigger man, which many believed would be difficult.
The victory was particularly gratifying for Alvarez, who many suggested was in decline after sub-par performances in his previous three fights.
You can read a full report here.
Round 1
Mostly a feel-out round, as neither guy did much. Charlo jabbed a little. Alvarez probably won the round with a few body shots, one particularly hard one about two minutes into the fight.
Round 2
Strong round for Alvarez. The champion has already cut off the ring, as Charlo isn’t giving him a reason to back off. As a result, he landed a number of eye-catching power shots in the second round. Not a good start for Charlo.
Round 3
More of the same. Charlo moved a little more and was somewhat busier but Alvarez stayed in Charlo’s face and landed some hard, accurate shots to the head and body. Charlo is going to have to adjust or he will have big problems.
Round 4
Better round for Charlo, who landed several good power shots that got Alvarez’s attention. They didn’t slow him down, though. Alvarez kept coming, kept firing off ill-intended shots and landed many of them.
Round 5
Charlo had some good moments — a combination late in the round was particularly impressive — but he can’t change the trajectory of the fight. Alvarez continues to stalk, continues to push the action and continues to outwork his opponent.
Round 6
Charlo is doing a pretty good job of moving and not getting hit cleanly. The problem for him is that he’s landing almost nothing himself. Alvarez continues to apply pressure and have success.
Round 7
Down goes Charlo. Alvarez hurt Charlo with a straight right about a minute into the round, which forced him to take a knee to give him self time to recover. And he DID recover. Quickly. Alvarez tried to follow up but Charlo wasn’t in serious trouble the rest of the round.
Round 8
Charlo fought with more urgency, putting a little more weight behind his punches. He had some success. However, Alvarez keeps coming and there’s nothing Charlo can do about it. He can’t hurt Alvarez, which might be the only way to slow him down.
Round 9
Same pattern. Charlo would have to fight extremely aggressively to turn the tide at this point. And, while he’s trying to compete, that isn’t going to happen because he knows it wouldn’t end well for him.
Round 10
Charlo isn’t in survival mode; he’s fighting hard. He landed some good power shots that round. However, he’s going to have to take more risks to pull off a miracle, as his trainer has instructed him.
Round 11
The best thing Charlo has done in this fight is not get knocked out or seriously hurt, although he was buzzed when he went down. He didn’t come for any kind of moral victory, though. Charlo is prideful. He’s used to winning. To get dominated will be difficult for him.
Round 12
Alvarez never took his foot off of the gas pedal. He continued to pressure Charlo until the final bell and dominate his opponent, who was seemed focused on just surviving the final three minutes. They showed good sportsmanship afterward, embracing warmly.
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Erickson Lubin defeated fellow 154-pound contender Jesus Ramos by a unanimous decision in a 12-round bout.
The official scores were 117-111, 116-112 and 115-113. Boxing Junkie had it 116-112 for Ramos, eight rounds to four.
Ramos (20-1, 16 KOs) seemed to control the first two thirds of the fight against a relatively passive opponent, most conspicuously landing hard, eye catching punches to the body consistently.
However, Lubin (26-2, 18 KOs), who had done little more than jab, picked up his pace and began landing combinations as his opponent slowed down to overtake Ramos on the cards.
The decision will be seen as controversial given Ramos’ success for much of the fight.
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Mario Barrios dropped Yordenis Ugas twice en route to winning a unanimous decision in a 12-round bout between veteran welterweight contenders.
The official scores were 118-107, 118-107 and 117-108. Boxing Junkie also scored it 117-108 for Barrios, nine round to three.
Barrios (28-2, 18 KOs) put Ugas (27-6, 12 KOs) down with a jab in Round 2 and again with a left in Round 12 but it was his technical ability — particularly his left jab — that earned him the victory.
The Texan outboxed and outworked the 37-year-old Ugas, who was competitive and had some good moments but couldn’t keep pace his with his younger opponent.
The jab also closed Ugas’ right eye, the same eye that Errol Spence Jr. damaged in April of last year. The injury evidently hampered the Cuban down the stretch, when Barrios seemed to pull away on the cards.
The ring doctor checked the eye three times but ultimately allowed Ugas to finish the fight, which the brave former champion was determined to do.
Ugas was docked a point in the final round for intentionally spitting out his mouth piece.
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Twenty-year-old middleweight contender Elijah Garcia knocked out Jose Armando Resendiz at 1:23 of the eighth round of a scheduled 10-round bout.
Garcia (16-0, 13 KOs) picked his fellow contender apart with sharp punches from an arm’s length. And even when Resendiz (14-2, 10 KOs) worked his way inside, where he had most of his success, Garcia more than held his own.
As a result, Garcia wore down his Mexican opponent, which opened the door to the knockout.
The beginning of the end for Resendiz was a double right hook from the left-handed Garcia, one to the body and one to the chin that knocked Resendiz onto all fours and hurt him.
Resendiz was able to get up but a flurry of hard, accurate follow up shots from Garcia convinced referee Tony Weeks to stop the fight.
“I’m a counter-puncher,” Garcia said. “I countered to the body and came up to the head. I didn’t double up on my hook and that was the first time I did it and I caught him.
“The ref let him fight and I saw that he was still hurt, so I do what I do, I finished.
Garcia, from Phoenix, is ranked by all four major sanctioning bodies, as high as No. 6 by the WBC.
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Undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez is scheduled to defend his titles against Jermell Charlo on pay-per-view Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The featured bouts on the card begin at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. The main event will take place later in the show.
Boxing Junkie will post round-by-round analysis and the result of the main event immediately after it ends. We’ll also post the results of other featured bouts. Simply return to this post and refresh when the time comes.
Full coverage – a fight story, photo gallery and analysis – will follow on separate posts the night of the fight and the following day.
Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs) is coming off three consecutive subpar performances, a loss to Dmitry Bivol and so-so decisions over Gennadiy Golovkin and John Ryder that have led many to suggest the Mexican star is in decline.
He said he has struggled because of injures and is fully healthy now, which he insists will be reflected in his performance on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs), the undisputed 154-pound champ, is moving up two divisions to challenge Alvarez. The Houston fighter is coming off a 10th-round knockout of Brian Castano in their rematch 16 months ago.
Enjoy the fights!
