isaan.live — Canelo Alvarez, boxing’s top celebrity, retained his combined very middleweight champion with a unanimous choice success over Edgar Berlanga on Saturday evening at T-Mobile Field.
Alvarez floored Berlanga with a impressive left hook in Rounded 3 — his money strike — and prevailed via ratings of 117-110, 118-109 and 118-109. ESPN racked up it a 120-107 shutout.
This was the 5th successive choice success for Alvarez, that hasn’t already racked up a knockout win since he beat Caleb Grow in November 2021. It is also the 4th successive spell where Alvarez racked up a knockdown.
“Currently what are they gonna say?” Alvarez, 34, said throughout his postfight interview. “I fight more youthful competitors. They say I fight older competitors. They constantly talk…. My experience, my skill, my effort, my knowledge, everything with each other [makes me the best]. If you have actually skill but you do not have self-control, you have absolutely nothing.”
Alvarez, ESPN’s No. 5 pound-for-pound fighter, is an all-time great. Berlanga, on the other hand, was combating on the first-rate degree for the very first time. Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KOs) was a -1600 favorite, each ESPN BET, and a -250 favorite to make the win inside the range.
However, Berlanga (22-1, 17 KOs) seldom tossed a power strike, plainly cautious of providing a counter-punching opportunity for among the sport’s best at taking advantage of on such openings. Following the knockdown, as Berlanga rested on the canvas and banged his handwear covers with each other, he entered survival setting.
Alvarez pushed ahead and attempted to shut range as Berlanga pumped his jab from from range. And while Berlanga was rugged on the inside and revealed some strength, he plainly had not been ready to sell out and risk ending up being a knockout sufferer.
“I’m upset,” Berlanga said. “I combated a tale tonight. Hopefully this is the begin today of me ending up being a future tale…. I took his best fired, I think, in the 3rd rounded.”
The Brooklynite of Puerto Rican heritage started his profession with 16 first-round KOs, but as he tipped up in competitors, his power dissipated. Berlanga, 27, entered his first title fired on the heels of a sixth-round knockout success over Padraig McCrory in February.
Alvarez, normally, is several degrees over such an challenger, and his riches of experience revealed. He was the much more comfy competitor, however he was frustrated on event by Berlanga’s roughhouse strategies, as umpire Harvey Dock cautioned both numerous times.
“Competitors prefer to toss each various other off their video games,” Berlanga said.
Alvarez was once again headlining on Mexican Self-reliance Day weekend break, a couple of boxing vacations reserved for the sport’s top attraction. And he had not been ready to discuss which he desires to face when he eventually returns on Cinco De Mayo weekend break.
In the lead-up to the spell, Alvarez informed ESPN on Wednesday he was interested in a rematch with Dmitry Bivol, that beat him in May 2022 at 175 extra pounds. That is provided that Bivol defeats Artur Beterbiev for the undeniable light heavyweight champion Oct. 12 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Another option was ringside: Terence Crawford, the future Hall of Famer that remains unbeaten. He made his 154-pound launching last month with a win over Israil Madrimov and informed ESPN on Thursday he’d prefer to fight Alvarez at the full-fledged 168-pound limit with no rehydration provision.
“I think it would certainly inform the No. 1 man of this era in the post-Mayweather era, who’s the king of kings,” Crawford said.
Whomever Alvarez fights next, he’ll still be looking for his first knockout success since November 2021, however he hasn’t already shed many rounds at the same time.
Alvarez said: “I’m the best competitor on the planet.”