T-MOBILE ARENA, LAS VEGAS — Saul "Canelo" Alvarez denied Jermell Charlo's quest to be undisputed in a second weight class as he cruised to a unanimous decision victory to retain his own undisputed super middleweight titles.
Charlo promised to give Canelo all he could handle but he gave the sport's biggest star absolutely nothing to worry about over the course of 12 one-sided rounds.
Charlo already had a significant mountain to climb by moving up two weight classes and leaving his undisputed super welterweight status behind for the biggest fight of his career. But there are clearly levels to the boxing game and Charlo was either unprepared or unwilling to deal with one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
Charlo delivered a listless performance as Canelo bulled his way forward and tormented his opponent's body for much of the fight, scoring a knockdown in round seven to provide the only real drama of the evening.
Canelo pursued Charlo and realized very quickly that his opponent was overmatched. With Charlo spending most of the fight with his back against the ropes, Canelo rumbled forward and slugged away at the body, fired an efficient jab, and landed the occasional hook to the head.
There wasn't much that Canelo could do aside from following Charlo around and looking for an opening to land power shots. That opportunity presented itself in the seventh round when a body shot was followed by a right hand to the temple which caused Charlo to take a knee.
After that, it was a game of survival for Charlo.
With fans filtering out in the later rounds due to the insurmountable lead, Canelo appeared to become annoyed with Charlo's unwillingness to engage. The scores reflected that as Canelo won by tallies of 119-108, 118-109 & 118-109.
"Nobody can beat this Canelo," said the champion. "Cinco De Mayo. I'll come back and fight anybody. I don't f---ing care."
Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) successfully made his third defense of the undisputed super middleweight championship. He unified all four major titles when he knocked out Caleb Plant in November 2021.
After suffering a hiccup when he fell short in attempting to gain light heavyweight gold against Dmitry Bivol, the 33-year-old superstar has now won three fights in a row and will wait to see what's next. The obvious choice for many is a megafight with undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford. However, Crawford would need to move up 21 pounds for that fight to happen and he's engaged in a potential rematch with Errol Spence.
Other options appear to be David Benavidez and Jermell's older brother, Jermall Charlo.
As for Charlo, he still owns the IBF, WBA, and WBC championships and can return to the 154-pound division to defend those titles. Charlo called out Crawford, but after this performance, it is unlikely that Crawford would be interested.
Here's how it all went down in Las Vegas.
The Sporting News will provide the full results of Canelo vs. Charlo and the undercard fights from Las Vegas below.
Canelo Alvarez vs. Jermell Charlo full card results
- Canelo Alvarez def. Jermell Charlo via unanimous decision. (119-108, 118-109 & 118-109) to retain undisputed super middleweight titles
- Erickson Lubin def Jesus Ramos Jr. via unanimous decision (115-113, 116-112 & 117-111)
- Mario Barrios def. Yordenis Ugas via unanimous decision (117-108, 118-107 & 118-107) for the interim WBC welterweight title
- Elijah Garcia def. Armando Resendiz via 8th round TKO (1:23)
- Frank Sanchez def. Scott Alexander via 4th round TKO (3:00)
- Oleksandr Gvozdyk def. Isaac Rodrigues via. 2nd round TKO (:54)
- Terrell Gausha def. KeAndrae Leatherwood via majority decision (78-74, 78-74 & 76-76)
- Curmel Moton def. Ezequiel Flores via 1st round TKO (1:48)