- Canelo Álvarez secures super middleweight title in unanimous decision
- Mario Barrios defends WBC interim welterweight title with closed eye
- Brandon Figueroa knocks out Jessie Magdaleno in featherweight bout
On Saturday night, Canelo Álvarez maintained his undisputed super middleweight championship by defeating a determined opponent. In doing so, he demonstrated his superior strength and effectiveness, resulting in a unanimous decision that dealt Jaime Munguía his initial setback.
The fight was judged 117-110 by Tim Cheatham, 116-111 by David Sutherland, and 115-112 by Steve Weisfeld.
In front of 17,492 spectators, Álvarez (61-2-2) resolved a moderately sluggish start and emerged victorious against Munguía (43-1). The champion seized complete control following Mungua’s fourth-round knockdown.
Aside from the unusually cordial pre-match remarks, both competitors expressed pride in representing Mexico over the Cinco de Mayo weekend.
Alvarez reserved his most severe criticism for Munguía’s promoter rather than his opponent throughout the week. Oscar De La Hoya was once on Álvarez’s side; however, it is now evident that the two players are opposed. They came close to exchanging accusations at a news conference on Wednesday.
In the first three rounds, Munguía was the most aggressive combatant, even tying Álvarez in the ropes in the third. Álvarez, on the other hand, demonstrated in the fourth that he had no intention of retreating, dispatching Munguía with a right-to-the-face followed by a left, with 39 seconds remaining.
Throughout the subsequent four rounds, Álvarez continued to inflict damage upon Munguía by landing strikes to the face. Although Munguia fabricated his own sets of flurries, Álvarez was not significantly impacted by them.
That was the case until the ninth round, when Álvarez was knocked backward by several strikes to the face delivered by Munguía, including one that went into the corner. In contrast, Álvarez delivered his combinations, which included one from the corner, during the most action-packed round of the bout.
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Although the tenth and eleventh rounds were close, Álvarez continued to execute the more difficult shots in a largely consistent fashion.
Mungua fought as if he were aware that the judges’ card placed him in the losing position in the final round, but he dealt little damage. Ovarez once more delivered the more effective blows, finishing the contest with a combination strike and several more strikes on Munguía with about a minute remaining.
In the remaining main-card battles:
In the co-main event, Mario Barrios (29-2) of San Antonio effectively defended his WBC interim world welterweight title through a unanimous decision victory over Argentinian Fabian Maidana (22-3). The scorecards for each judge were 116-111.
Despite fighting with his right eye almost entirely closed, Barrios emerged victorious.
“As anticipated, Maidana fought valiantly for twelve rounds,” Barrios stated. “Once my eye began to enlarge, it became difficult to determine my range. “However, by adhering to the fundamentals and searching for openings, we emerged victorious.”
Jessie Magdaleno (29-3) of Las Vegas was knocked out by WBC interim world featherweight champion Brandon Figueroa (25-1-1, 19 KOs) of Welasco, Texas, with a left uppercut to the kidney with one second remaining in the ninth round.
Eimantas Stanionis (15-1) of Lithuania retained his WBA welterweight title with relative ease by defeating Gabriel Maestre (6-1-1) of Venezuela via unanimous decision (117-111, 118-10, and 119-109).
