Any hints that Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez is on the downside of his career were extinguished in Las Vegas on Saturday as the face of boxing dismantled challenger Jermell Charlo for an easy unanimous-decision victory (119-108, 118-109 and 118-109).
To his credit, Charlo wasn’t knocked out and never appeared to be overwhelmed, outside of the seventh round when he was forced to take a knee.
Charlo (35-2-1) even had a few impressive moments in the fourth and fifth rounds, but ultimately was outclassed by Canelo (60-2-2), who had success with his jab throughout the night. In fact, Canelo out-jabbed the taller, lankier Charlo 56-40, in what may have been the biggest surprise of the night.
And for anyone wondering if Alvarez is eyeing retirement after retaining his four 168-pound titles, Guadalajara, Mexico’s favorite son had a pretty definitive answer.
‘I love boxing so f***ing much!’ the 33-year-old exclaimed during his post-fight interview with Jim Gray, adding that he doesn’t ‘f***ing care’ who he fights next.
Canelo pummeled Charlo along the ropes for much of the fight on Saturday in Las Vegas
Charlo was solid in the fourth and fifth rounds, but couldn’t hang with Canelo for all 12 frames
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman previously declared David Benavidez will be Canelo’s mandatory challenger for the super middleweight belt.
But Alvarez has not committed to facing Benavidez, a 26-year-old who is 27-0 with all but four by knockout. If Alvarez turns down Benavidez, the WBC likely would vacate his championship.
‘I’m going to win [versus Charlo], but I don’t know what is next,’ Alvarez said earlier in the week. ‘I’m going to sit down with my team and talk about it because I’m 100 percent focused on this fight.’
As for his potential options post-Charlo, Alvarez said his intention would be to ‘make the best fights out there. We will see after this fight.’
Saturday’s win erased some less-than-stellar performances from Canelo’s recent past.
He fell to Dmitry Bivol in May 2022, but rebounded with a unanimous decision over Gennady Golovkin and trounced John Ryder in May on the scorecards soon after. But Triple G was clearly past his prime, and Ryder was out of his league.
The CompuBox stats for Saturday’s show Canelo out-landed Charlo, 134-71
Naturally, boxing fans began wondering if the sport was passing Canelo by until Saturday, when he was nearly flawless against Charlo.
The CompuBox stats give a pretty clear picture of how the night went for both fighters.
While Canelo was landing 40 percent of his power punches, Charlo connected on just 27 percent of his. What’s worse, the Houston native managed to land only 18 percent of his overall punches.
Even when Charlo was at his best in the fourth and fifth rounds, he was still being out-punched by Canelo, who ultimately took his foot off the gas in the 11th and 12th rounds.
In the end, though, it didn’t matter. Charlo didn’t come close to hurting Canelo on Saturday, and the judge’s scorecards reflected that.