On this day: Floyd Mayweather outclasses Canelo Alvarez, unifies 154-pound championship

A grasp at work.

On Sept. 14, 2013, Floyd Mayweather added Ring and WBC junior middleweight titles to his WBA model by posting a dominant 12-round majority resolution over Mexico’s beforehand unbeaten Canelo Alvarez. The official scores have been 117-111, 116-112 and 114-114.

Now, the phrases “dominant” and “majority resolution” not often – if ever – seem in the identical sentence. Nonetheless, the official outcome doesn’t inform the story. Choose C. J. Ross, who had the temerity to attain this bout six rounds to 6, by no means labored once more.

This was a landslide victory for Floyd Mayweather.

The scoring was not the one controversy. Regardless of a treasure trove of junior middleweight gold being up for grabs, the bout was contested at a 152-pound catchweight. All the time the businessman, in addition to the reliable A-side, Mayweather jumped on the probability to place the champion – and the bigger man – by means of some further discomfort in coaching camp.

On the evening, nevertheless, this struggle was about ability, velocity and reflexes, which Mayweather had in abundance. Canelo landed the odd meaty headshot, and loved success to the physique, however he was unable to inflict severe injury. Mayweather was a genius at controlling distance and he picked his punches superbly.

A win was means out of attain for Canelo lengthy earlier than the bell to start Spherical 12. Solely 23 years of age on the time, the Mexican star would finally have a look at this expertise as a studying curve. Mayweather, nonetheless the boxing savant on the age of 36, was on dazzling kind in one of many greatest fights of his profession. There have been some ringsiders who scored each spherical in his favor.

“Mexico has had some nice champions and Canelo is a real champion,” mentioned Mayweather afterwards. “I simply listened to my dad, he had a terrific recreation plan – take my time.”

“He’s a terrific fighter,” acknowledged Canelo. “He’s very skilled, very clever, very elusive – it’s so simple as that. The frustration was attending to me. I simply didn’t know methods to catch him.”