Canelo Crowned Middleweight Champ
By Ralph Rimpell
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 16 Sep 2018
In front of a sold out audience at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez (50-1-2, 34KOs) stood in the center of the ring and fought a different fight then he did a year ago that earned him in what many thought was a gift draw against one of the best middleweight champions in boxing history, Gennandy ?GGG? Golovkin (38-1-1, 34KOs). Tonight Canelo showed no fear and fought.
This is how it played out:
1st round - Both fighters felt each other out. Each picked their shots and had their moments. Close round. Philboxing scores it 10-9 for Golovkin.
2nd round - Canelo was able to land with better accuracy. Golovkin also had his moments. Canelo outworks Golovkin. 10-9 Canelo.
3rd round - Both fighters are trying to land a knockout punch. Good defense by both fighters to avoid each other?s punches. Another close round. 10-9 Golovkin.
4th round - Golovkin worked well behind his jab to land head shots and combinations. Canelo was unable to close the gap to land anything to hurt Golovkin. 10-9 Golovkin.
5th round - Canelo looking to make it a war. Appears frustrated as Golovkin tags him with repeated the jabs. Canelo swings wildly and misses. 10-9 Golovkin.
6th round - Both fighters continue to fight in the center of the ring. Both fighters landed and had their moments. Very close round. Canelo 10-9.
7th round - Golovkin is controlling the fight with his jab. The jab kept Canelo at bay for him to avoid Canelo?s wild shots. Golovkin 10-9.
8th round - More of the same action from round 7 in round 8. Golovkin appears exhausted. Golovkin 10-9.
9th round - Canelo apparently sensing Golovkin is tired and that the fight may be close presses the action. Canelo 10-9.
10th round - Golovkin continues to uses the jab as he did previously to set up his shots and throw combinations and finds success. Golovkin 10-9.
11th round - Both fighters are fighting with a sense of urgency. Both score well against each other. Close round. 10-9 Golovkin.
12th round. Golovkin looks even more exhausted than in previous rounds (good thing this is not a 15 round fight like it use to be in the past). Golovkin takes a deep breath, throws, a flurry of combinations, and scores. He then establishes his jab. Canelo throws a flurry of punches with some success. 10-9 Golovkin.
The 3 Judges scores: 114-114 a Draw, 115-113 x 2 for Canelo.
Philboxing had Golovkin as the winner with 9 rounds for Golovkin and 3 rounds for Canelo.
In the co-main event emerging boxing star WBO jr. middleweight champion Jaime Munguia 31-0, 26KOs of Mexico made the second defense of his title against a game Brandon Cook (20-2, 13KOs) of Ontario Canada. Munguia stopped an overmatched Cook after the second knockdown at 1:03 of the 3rd round.
PPV Undercard
Former IBF middleweight champion David Lemieux (40-4, 34KOs) made quick work of Gary O?Sullivan (28-3,20KOs) in round 1. Both fighters appear to rattle and cause the other to lose balance as they tasted each other?s punching power, but it would be Lemieux who would overpower O?Sullivan with a perfect left hook to the chin that sent the Irishmen to the canvas. Dazed on his knees and struggling to stand the referee waved it off the fight at 2:44 of the 1st round. Lemieux who had rehydrated to a whopping 179lbs (middleweight is 160lbs) stated he wanted to fight both Canelo and GGG.
Former Pound 4 Pound and 4 division champion Roman ?Choclatito? Gonzalez made a successful return to the ring by knocking out former champion Moises Fuentes in a Super Flyweight bout connecting with a perfect left-right combination to the chin in the 5th round. The announcers announced the stoppage as a TKO, but believe this Writer when I say Fuentes was knocked out cold! If any top contender thinks Gonzalez is a ?shot fighter? they are in for a surprise. Gonzalez is back in the win column as he improves his record to 47-2, 39KOs and Fuentes drops to 25-6-1, 14KOs.
OFF PPV Bouts
Vergil Ortiz, Jr. took a big step forward and is now 11-0,11KOs by stopping Veteran Roberto Ortiz who drops to 35-3-2,26KOs when stopped 1:03 of the 2nd round. The match was fought in the Superlightweight division.
Super welterweight Alexis Rocha remained undefeated (12-0,8KOs) by decisioning Carlos Ortiz (10-3, 10KOs)
In a battle of Supermiddleweights, Philadelphia?s Jaba Khositashvili improved his record to 4-0, 2KOs via unanimous decision over Lawrence King of San Bernidino who now drops to 4-1, 3KOs.
The Big Apple?s Brian Ceballo of New York stopped Texan Dave Thomas in a welterweight bout 34 seconds into the 2nd round. Thomas now drops to 6-4-1, 2KOs, while Ceballo improved to 5-0, 3KOs.
Contact Writer: RLuvsboxing@aol.com
***Ralph Rimpell is a writer based out of New York and is a Boxing Correspondent for Philboxing.com. Ralph holds an undergraduate degree from City University of New York. He has been a Boxing Writer for over ten years having written for several top boxing websites on the World Wide Web. Before becoming a writer, Ralph's passion was for professional wrestling until he realized professional wrestling was entertainment and not a real sport. It was at that time the 1984 US Olympic team made up of future stars such as Evander Holyfield, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, etc. entered the professional ranks and signed with promotional outfit Main Events.It was also at that time a young exciting Heavyweight originally hailing from Brooklyn named Mike Tyson also turned professional and became the face of boxing. Young boxing fan Ralph just couldn't get enough of boxing as a large part of it was being broadcast on "free TV". As time went on, Ralph felt boxing writers were not being forthcoming with their boxing coverage, opinion pieces, interviews, etc. So Ralph decided to write an article and submitted it to a Boxing website thinking it would be deleted and ignored by the Editor. To Ralph's surprise his article was posted on their website and the readers embraced it. The rest is history.
"I thank God for the Internet because it has created opportunities for writers like myself who likely would not have been given an opportunity to write for print publications. I hope someday soon to expand my role in Boxing on different levels." -- Ralph Rimpell
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ralph Rimpell.
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