Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
‘Canelo’ Alvarez beats Jacobs, unifies middleweight boxing titles
Alvarez overcomes weight disadvantage, beats Jacobs
Daniel Jacobs arrived Saturday evening to T-Mobile Arena as the bigger, stronger boxer after violating a contractual re-hydration clause ahead of his middleweight unification title bout against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
Alvarez left T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night as the better boxer.
With a unanimous decision victory and three championship belts to show for it.
Alvarez continued his reign over the middleweight division in decisive fashion Saturday night, unifying the WBC, WBA and IBF titles with a 116-112, 115-113, 115-13 win over Jacobs. The 28-year old Mexican superstar dominated the early portion of the fight and survived a late flurry from
Jacobs — extending his unbeaten streak to 11.
Proving he is, undoubtedly, the world’s best middleweight before an announced crowd of 20,203.
“It’s just what we thought,” Alvarez said through an interpreter. “We knew he would be a difficult fighter, but we did things the right way. The way we were supposed to. It was just what we thought. We did our job.”
Both fighters made the 160-pound weight limit Friday afternoon, but Jacobs weighed 173.6 pounds at the second weigh-in Saturday morning — subjecting himself to considerable fines for ignoring the contractual 170-pound plateau.
He was considerably bigger Saturday night than Alvarez. But Alvarez was considerably more tactical.
Considerably more precise over the course of their 12-round title affair.
Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 knockouts) dictated pace and tempo, and connected with more punches in nine of 12 rounds despite attempting nearly 200 fewer throughout the fight. He worked the middle of the ring early and threw more potent jabs and power punches to the face and body while Jacobs struggled to find his footing.
“It took a couple rounds to get my wits about me and figure out his rhythm,” Jacobs said. “He’s a pot shooter. I felt I gave a enough to get the victory. … I got the short end of the stick.”
Jacobs (35-3, 29 KOs) indeed discovered a rhythm toward the middle of the fight, and threw more punches over the final six rounds. But Alvarez relied on his defense, evading power shot after power shot while landing 188 punches to Jacobs’ 131.
“I have to go back to look at the tapes to see exactly what the judges thought,” Jacobs said. “They said to me, that I was up, so I was still pushing forward because I wanted to finish strong. He’s a tremendous champion, and I tip my hat to him. I gave my all out there.”
Alvarez has middleweight title victories over Miguel Cotto, Liam Smith, Gennady Golovkin and now Jacobs to his name, and has laid the best in the division to waste since losing to Floyd Mayweather in 2013.
He’s promised to fight the best in the world.
He’s beat the best in the world. He may very well be the best in the world.
Time to figure out whom to fight next.
“Who do you want? I’m looking for the biggest challenge,” Alvarez said. “That’s all I want. I’m looking for the biggest challenge. … I was born to fight and defend what’s mine.”