Canelo cements his star in San Antonio

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By Alex Mattis

(As I write this, my ears are still ringing with chants of “Kah! Nell! Oh!”)

A jam-packed Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas was the site Saturday night as Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Austin Trout fought to unify the WBC and WBA super welterweight titles and crown a Ring super welterweight champion. 40,000 showed up and almost all of them were there to see Alvarez get his hand raised. Fortunately, that got what the paid for.

In the 12-round main event, boxing’s newest superstar extended his undefeated record to 42-0-1 with a unanimous decision victory over Austin Trout (26-1). Canelo displayed defense and poise unseen until this point en route to gaining his biggest win to date. The Mexican phenom knocked down Trout (for the first time in his career) in the seventh round and led the live audience into a frenzy.

This fight, however, was by no means a blowout. Austin Trout worked his jab from bell-to-bell and displayed great mobility. Trout threw a great volume, but was met by the harder strikes from the opposition. Trout remained competitive the entire bout and gave Canelo a true challenge.

Unfortunately, Trout’s efforts were not acknowledged as the shady scorecards came across almost comically bias. The cards read 115-112, 116-111 and, the egregious, 118-109. While it’s fair to say that most felt Canelo won, the numbers left a bad taste for many.

Regardless, this fight and event solidified Saul Alvarez’s star and place in the sport.

The co-main event of the evening saw Omar Figueroa Jr. take out Abner Cotto in the first round. A series of hooks dropped Cotto early and it was all downhill from there. Figueroa swarmed and unleashed combination after combination. Eventually, Cotto was pinned in the corner and a hook to the body was his ultimate demise. With this win, Figueroa captured the vacant NABA &WBC Fecarbox lightweight titles and remains unbeaten.

As for the rest of the evening:

-Despite getting knocked down in the opening round, Terrell Gausha (4-0) fought through and won a decision over William Walters (2-4). 38-37 across the board.

-Unbeaten Julian Williams (12-0-1) added another W to his record with a nasty third round TKO of Dashon Johnson (14-11-3). Johnson protested, but replays showed the fight needed to be stopped.

-After eight rounds, Ivan “Yes, I’m Erik’s Little Brother” Morales (21-0) cruised to a unanimous decision over Raul Hidalgo (17-8).

-Andres Gutierrez (26-0-1) scored a fifth round TKO of Salvador Sanchez II (30-6-3) to claim the vacant WBC super bantamweight silver belt.

-And the card started off with an upset as Omar Gonzalez (6-8) won a split decision over Raul Martinez (29-3).