Saul “Canelo” Alvarez retained the undisputed super-middleweight titles on Saturday, dropping and outpointing Jaime Munguia in Las Vegas.
The Mexicans clashed on Cinco de Mayo weekend, with Alvarez, 33, refusing to pass the torch to the younger challenger, 27. Instead, Canelo sealed a unanimous-decision win (117-110, 116-111, 115-112), having troubled Munguia throughout the bout and having dropped the previously unbeaten fighter in round four.
It was a perfect right uppercut that put down Munguia, who had never before hit the canvas, and Canelo pulled ahead from there, after Munguia’s admittedly bright start.
With the result, Canelo moved a step closer to a potential, highly-demanded fight with David Benavidez – though Alvarez played coy on Saturday, when asked about that contest.
Re-live Canelo vs Munguia updates and see all results from the undercard, below.
Canelo may be older and slower — but the King shows why he is not finished yet
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez still has a few good, hard and memorable fights left. On Saturday night in Las Vegas, boxing’s number one attraction won for the 61st time when he beat Jaime Munguia to retain his four world super-middleweight titles. The belts, the capacity crowd inside the T-Mobile, the money are just the latest numbers now in the Canelo story.
The simple facts are not enough; Canelo, as he is normally known, has the most impressive record in boxing and against Munguia, who was younger, bigger and unbeaten in 43 fights, he slowly took control of the fight. Canelo was smart, careful with his work and in round four, dropped Munguia when an opening appeared. Munguia had never been dropped before in his career; the perfect right uppercut and short left hook would have dropped a big mule.
Munguia was always in the fight, but he was never winning it after the third round.
Canelo is a bit slower than
