Canelo Alvarez convinces the judges amid a solid effort by Daniel Jacobs.Saul “Canelo” Alvarez scored a huge win in Las Vegas over Daniel “Miracle Man” Jacobs.
The Cinco De Mayo weekend is now an annual tradition in Las Vegas catered around Mexico’s biggest combat star. Alvarez (52-1-2, 34 KOs) and the Mexican Independence Day are intrinsically linked and the 20,203 attendees last night proved it.
The fight was for all the major middleweight belts: WBC, WBA, The Ring, IBF, and lineal. The two fighters decided to make a statement early on.
Canelo started out strong from the gate, stalking Jacobs and executing his now legendary punching power.
Jacobs took a while to get warmed up, but when he heated up was technically effective. Switching occasionally to southpaw, Jacobs worked his jab effectively, however, he was always out landed by Alvarez.
“It was just what we thought,” said Alvarez post-fight. “We knew he was going to be a difficult fighter, but thank god we did things the right way, what we were going to do. It was just what we thought because of the style of fight that he brings but we just did our job.”
Canelo won with two scores of 115-113 and one of 116-112.
“I feel accomplished, l feel great,” said Jacobs post fight. “I have to go back to look at the tapes to see exactly what the judges thought. They said to me, that I was up, so I was still pushing forward because I wanted to finish strong. He’s a tremendous champion and I tip my hat to him. I gave my all out there. You’ll see Daniel Jacobs bigger and better next time.”
“It definitely took me a couple rounds to get my wits about me, to figure out his rhythm, because he’s a pop shotter,” Jacobs continued. “He was a fast guy, very slippery. It was a great contest today, I look forward to the future. I feel like I gave enough tonight to get the victory so I’ll have to go back to the tapes to see exactly what happened.”
The Future
For Alvarez, the only belt he’s missing, the WBO, is resting with Demetrius Andrade, who is also streamed on the DAZN platform.
The two will likely clash to decide the top middleweight. With a five year, 11-fight contract, Alvarez is the linchpin for DAZN’s goal of transforming PPV customers into yearly app subscribers.
With GGG also on DAZN, the opportunity for trilogy for disgruntled Golovkin fans keeps Alvarez busy for a while.
“No, for me, it’s over,” Canelo said about his rivalry with GGG. “But if the people want another fight, we’ll do it again, and I’ll beat him again.”
Jacobs (35-3, 29 KOs) thought he won the fight but did concede that his time as a middleweight might be done. Jacobs came in three pounds overweight on the second weigh-in, which incurred a penalty of $250,000 a pound.
“I didn’t feel any different,” said Jacobs. “I’m just a naturally big middleweight. I made the sacrifice of coming in 173 and paying a hefty fine for it but at the end of the day, I made sacrifices.”
The main event delivered and with Golden Boy’s newest sensation, Vergil Ortiz, Jr. and Joseph “Jo Jo” Diaz providing knockouts during the undercards, the event was a major success.
