Alvarez’ victory sets up showdown with Golovkin
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez left no doubt who is the top active Mexican boxer by dominating Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
Come September, Alvarez will get a chance to become the middleweight champion again.
Minutes after winning every round on all three judges’ cards in a 12-round romp, Alvarez invited IBF-WBA-WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin into the ring and announced a long-awaited clash on Sept. 16. The contract already has been signed. Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) used a punishing jab to take control early against Chavez in a matchup of former middleweight champions. The bigger Chavez (50-3-1, 32 KOs) started bleeding from the nose in the third round. His left eye swelled in the sixth and started to close a round later.
NBA
Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and Houston’s Mike D’Antoni are the co-winners of the National Basketball Coaches Association’s coach of the year award.
The inaugural award, named for longtime NBCA executive director Michael H. Goldberg, is decided in a vote by the league’s 30 head coaches. The winners were announced Sunday. The award will be presented to Spoelstra and D’Antoni at the NBCA’s annual meeting in September.
Other coaches who received votes from their peers were Milwaukee’s Jason Kidd, Washington’s Scott Brooks, Memphis’ David Fizdale, Golden State’s Steve Kerr, San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, the Los Angeles Clippers’ Doc Rivers and Utah’s Quin Snyder.
Kerr out indefinitely: Kerr has had a spinal cord leak procedure on his back and remains out indefinitely. Warriors owner Joe Lacob updated Kerr’s condition during an interview with Bloomberg Radio.
Kerr did not travel to Salt Lake City for the Warriors’ 102-91 victory over the Utah Jazz on Saturday night that gave Golden State a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference second-round series. He saw a specialist Friday at Duke University.
Kerr had back surgery about two years ago and has been dealing with complications.
Assistant Mike Brown took over as acting coach for Game 3 of the first-round series against the Portland Trail Blazers. TENNIS
Maria Sharapova’s reward for advancing to the second round of the Madrid Open is a match against Eugenie Bouchard, one of the most outspoken players against the Russian’s return after a doping ban.
Sharapova recovered from a shaky opening to defeat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 in the first round.
Playing in her second tournament since a 15month doping suspension, Sharapova denied there would be extra motivation to defeat Bouchard after the Canadian previously called her “a cheater” and said she should be banned for life from the sport. AUTO RACING
ARCA Midwest Tour: Andrew Morrissey took the lead from Travis Sauter with 16 laps to go and then held off Dan Fredrickson to win the season-opening, 200-lap Joe Shear Classic at Madison International Speedway in the Town of Rutland.
Slinger Speedway: Three-time track champion Steve Apel took advantage of Gary LaMonte‘s brake problems to win the 75-lap opener, which had been postponed for a week because of rain. LaMonte had led the first 53 laps.
NHRA: Ron Capps raced to his third straight Funny Car victory, beating Tim Wilkerson in the Southern Nationals final in Commerce, Ga. HORSE RACING
Always Dreaming is headed to the Preakness in two weeks, when the Kentucky Derby winner is likely to face several fresh horses that skipped the first leg of the Triple Crown.
A majority of the field that ran on a sloppy track in Saturday’s Derby won’t go on to Baltimore.
Trainer Todd Pletcher says Always Dreaming will head there Tuesday so the 3-year-old colt will have plenty of time to adjust to his new surroundings ahead of the 13⁄16-mile race to be run May 20.
Also possible to run in the Preakness is Lookin At Lee, the long shot that finished second in the Derby. SOCCER
Brazilian soccer club Chapecoense has lifted its first title since the air crash that killed 19 of its players in November.
Chapecoense successfully defended its Santa Catarina state league title despite a 1-0 defeat at home against Avai. It is Chapecoense’s sixth title in the league, which is a dress rehearsal for the Brazilian championship that starts next weekend.