LAS VEGAS ? As has so often been the case these past 15 years or so, Floyd Mayweather Jr. had all the answers Saturday night, and Bernard Hopkins had the words to best describe what Mayweather had just done to an overmatched young innocent named Canelo Alvarez.
?Canelo brought a checkerboard to a chess match,? the 48-year-old reigning light heavyweight champion said in the early morning hours Sunday, not long after Mayweather bewitched, bothered and bewildered his 23-year-old challenger for 12 lopsided rounds to win a majority decision at the sold-out MGM Grand Garden Arena.
By the time Mayweather was finished, the only mystery was how in the world an apparent cyclops with cataracts named C.J. Ross witnessed what he?d done and concluded the fight was a draw when it was barely a fight. Mayweather was gracious about that, as he was when asked about young Alvarez, but if Ross is ever again seen with a pencil in her hand at ringside of a big fight, the people who put her there should be sent to prison because what she did Saturday night was attempted burglary or utter ineptitude. In boxing, both are felonies, or at least should be.
Despite Ross? point of view, her colleagues had Mayweather a clear winner, Dave Moretti scoring the bout 116-112 and Craig Metcalfe seeing it 117-111. The Herald had Mayweather 118-110. All were exceedingly kind viewpoints.
?Here?s the difference,? Hopkins explained. ?That was a Ph.D. vs. a GED.?
One could say more, but no one ever summed up better what they had just seen. From the opening bell to the final one, the previously undefeated Alvarez was not competitive. He couldn?t duck away from Mayweather?s jab, which bruised his left cheek and eye; he couldn?t slip away from Mayweather?s right hand, which often reddened his ears both from the sharpness of the blows and the embarrassment of being unable to move his head in time to avoid them; and he couldn?t hit Mayweather if he?d come in there swinging an ax handle.
The one thing he could do was wade forward for 12 rounds and accept a relentless beating, often being stopped in his tracks when Mayweather would tuck his own chin behind his turned left shoulder and step toward him, deflecting Alvarez? blows harmlessly and then snapping his head back with his jab, his straight right hand and, on at least one occasion, a right uppercut on the inside that rattled his teeth and snapped his head back as if it was attached to a cord midway up the packed stands that someone had jerked back on.
With Alvarez sitting near him after the fight wearing a blank expression on his face and carrying the slumped shoulders of a man whose view of himself had been shaken, Mayweather was asked if he felt Alvarez had won even a single round. His response was a telling effort at kindness and honesty.
?He fought hard,? Mayweather (45-0, 26 KO) said with a deference Alvarez had to wish he?d shown him in the ring.
Prodded for an answer to the question by having it repeated, Mayweather stopped for a long moment before smiling and saying, ?He fought hard.?
The room broke up in laughter except for the small corner occupied by Alvarez and his handlers, who sat stone-faced and silent. What was there for them to say? Their previously undefeated fighter with the thin resume and unwarranted hype had been, to be kind, non-competitive in the most obvious of ways: He could not hit Floyd Mayweather Jr. no matter what he tried.
CompuBox statistics alleged Alvarez (42-1-1, 30 KO) landed 22 percent of the 526 punches he threw. They must have included the ones that hit the desert air because that was most of them. In fact, late in Round 11 Alvarez badly missed a wildly thrown punch with Mayweather standing only inches away from him. As Mayweather spun away like a whirling top chased by a young child, Alvarez? fist slammed into the ropes and they bounced and jangled wildly.
As they did Mayweather stopped in his tracks for an instant, staring with wide-eyed astonishment at the target Alvarez had just hit. Then he smirked as if to say, ?You need to install GPS, boy.?
If he had, it wouldn?t have helped.
?There was no solution for him,? Alvarez admitted. ?I didn?t know how to get to him. He?s very elusive. I was trying to catch him. The frustration was getting in there.
?I had a game plan and I kept trying to work it. He took me out of it. We didn?t have an answer for it. I didn?t really feel his punches. They weren?t that strong but he was scoring points.?
He was also scoring at the bank, where the head of The Money Team will today deposit a check for $41 million, the bulk of the pay he was guaranteed but perhaps as little as half what he will ultimately receive if the pay-per-view sales approach projections.
How that came to be is more astonishing then Mayweather?s vast talent, for before the first bell sounded, the suits kept calling this ?the biggest fight in boxing history.? What it turned out to be was the most well-paid sparring session in boxing history.
