Canelo Alvarez’s comeback from his first career loss was nothing short of spectacular.
Alvarez, 23, defeated Alfredo Angulo on a 10th-round technical knockout Saturday night in their action-packed non-title super welterweight fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas when referee Tony Weeks stopped it, much to the displeasure of the packed house at the Grand Garden Arena.
Alvarez (43-1-1, 31 KOs) dominated the fight from the opening bell, throwing hard combinations, powerful jabs and crushing body shots. By the time Weeks halted the fight, Angulo’s face showed the damage caused by Alvarez’s constant barrage. Both of Angulo’s eyes were nearly swollen shut and he had a gash over his left eye.
Alvarez landed 197 power punches to Angulo’s 78 in the more than nine rounds of action. Still, the crowd booed at the stoppage, and Angulo (22-4, 18 KOs) pleaded with Weeks, but to no avail.
“I could’ve fought another 10 rounds but the referee stopped the fight. It’s not my problem,” Alvarez said. “I came here to fight.”
Alvarez, fighting for the first time since his decisive loss to Floyd Mayweather last September, had been criticized by Angulo’s trainer, Virgil Hunter, for having the body type that tires in the late rounds. But Alvarez showed no signs of slowing down Saturday, looking as strong in the 10th as he was in the first.
The tough Angulo was also stopped in his last fight by Erislandy Lara after his left eye swelled shut in the 10th round. But he knocked Lara down twice earlier, the first times in his career that has happened.
On this night, however, he was no match for Alvarez in power, quickness and volume of punches.
On the undercard, Leo Santa Cruz overcame a cut from an accidental head butt to retain his WBC super bantamweight title with a near-shutout unanimous victory against challenger Cristian Mijares.
“Mijares is a great boxer, but I did what I needed to do,” Santa Cruz (27-0-1, 15 KOs) said. “Being a lefty, we had to be 100% ready, and we were.”
Mijares fell to 49-8-2 (24 KOs), Santa Cruz is expected to meet mandatory challenger Carl Frampton of Northern Ireland next. He said Saturday
Also, lightweight slugger Jorge Linares scored a unanimous decision against Japan’s Nihito Arakawa, and Sergio Thomson, a late replacement for Omar Figeuroa Jr., defeated Ricardo Alvarez, the older brother of Canelo Alvarez in a 10-round bout. The fight replaced the Carlos Molina-Jermall Charlo fight, after Molina was arrested this week
