Canelo Alvarez Wins Unification Fight In Front Record Crowd

By: Julio Olmo

Canelo Alvarez could feel it coming.

In the eighth round at AT&T Stadium on Saturday night, the Mexican champion egged on by a record-breaking crowd as he pelted Billy Joe Saunders in their super-middleweight unification fight. Alvarez inflicted enough damage to enhance his legacy, winning the fight after it was waved off between the eighth and ninth rounds.

Saunders’ right eye had swollen shut, and the bout was called off with Saunders still on the stool. With the victory, Alvarez holds three of the four belts in the 168-pound division.

“I knew this would be final outcome,” Alvarez said through a translator in his postfight interview. “I knew it. I think I broke his cheek and knew he wasn’t coming out of the corner. I told Eddy [Reynoso] he wasn’t coming out because I broke his cheek. I knew it was it.”

Saunders, who lost his WBO belt in his first professional defeat, was taken directly into an ambulance and was suspected to have a broken orbital bone, according to his promoter, Matchroom Boxing.

A crowd of 73,126 was announced at the home of the Dallas Cowboys, breaking the record of the largest indoor attendance for a boxing event in the United States. The previous mark was 63,350 for the Muhammad Ali-Leon Spinks rematch in 1978.

🇲🇽 Gracias a las más de 70,000 personas que me acompañaron, esto va por ustedes y por todo México.

🇺🇸 Thanks to the more of 70,000 people that joined me, this goes out to all of you and for Mexico. #CaneloSaunders

✅ WBO
✅ WBC
✅ WBA
✅ The Ring Super Middleweight pic.twitter.com/ZYudjjfll8

— Canelo Alvarez (@Canelo) May 9, 2021

The crowd for Alvarez-Saunders is believed to be the biggest gathering in the United States since COVID-19 became a pandemic.

The turning shot came in the middle of the ring. Alvarez unleashed a looping, right uppercut that hit Saunders squarely on the right eye as Saunders attempted to duck beneath it. When Saunders turned and walked to his corner, the eye had noticeably swollen shut.

Between the rounds, Saunders’ corner said the fighter couldn’t see and didn’t let him out for the ninth. Before the stoppage, Saunders was effective at circling the ring and landing shots from the outside. At the top of the stoppage, Saunders was down 78-74 on two scorecards and trailed 77-75 on another, with all three giving Alvarez the dominant eighth round.

The Canelo uppercut that sealed it, in 𝑺𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝑴𝒐. 💥#CaneloSaunders pic.twitter.com/12CMu1xKOG

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) May 10, 2021

Middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade, who has long clamored to face Alvarez and other similar fighters interrupted Alvarez’s post-fight news conference. Alvarez, in a good and engaging mood, repeatedly told Andrade to “get the f— out” of the room and called him a horrible fighter, which escalated the situation between the men.

Alvarez maintained that his short-term goal was winning all four belts in the 168-pound division to become the first undisputed champion in the modern era. In the postfight interview, Alvarez clamored for that fight along with Matchroom’s Hearn, who has worked with Alvarez in his three fights since splitting from Golden Boy Promotions.

#Boxing: @Canelo on a possible third fight with @GGGBoxing 🥊 pic.twitter.com/DlNQ9xhM8w

— AS USA (@English_AS) May 10, 2021

“That’s the fight that has to happen for boxing — the undisputed championship at 168 pounds,” Hearn said on DAZN. “It’s the must-make fight next. What’s Caleb Plant going to do?”