LAS VEGAS – The fight was no celebration. It was just a beating.
There was nothing to cheer until Canelo Alvarez’ predictable victory was over Saturday night.
A crowd 20,510 fans booed a nasty goodbye to legend wannabe Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and then forgot all about the 12 rounds that were never really a fight anyway. Instead, it was an event that included a steppingstone toward the one fight everyone has wanted to see for a couple of years.
Finally, we can look forward to Canelo versus Gennady Golovkin.
While boos still echoed throughout T-Mobil Arena, there was suddenly GGG, entering the arena and then the ring to congratulate Canelo. For days before opening bell, Golden Boy Promotions repeatedly said that GGG would not attend. It was a secret.
But the plan – a good piece of stagecraft — was in place all along, because Golden Boy knew what many in the media had predicted for weeks. Chavez Jr. had no chance. The event had to include something dramatic.
So, yeah, GGG showed up and suddenly the crowd forgot why it was so unhappy.
Yes, Canelo said, his next fight would be on Sept. 16 against middleweight champion GGG.
“Triple-G, you are next my friend,” Canelo (49-1-1, 34 KOs) said. “The fight is done. I’ve never feared anyone since I was 16. When I was born, fear was gone.”
Canelo said it almost as if he had just finished a workout for the September date. Next time around, Canelo might want to get a better sparring partner. He surely had nothing to fear in Chavez Jr. (50-3-1, 32 KOs) in a 164.5-pound bout.
He turned Chavez Jr. into a Cinco de Mayo piñata, pounding him with thumping blows from round to punishing round in bout that had to have an HBO pay-per-view audience wondering why it paid good for another stinker.
It was 120-108 on all three scorecards. But it was more than unanimous. More than just one-sided. It was an avalanche, one that simply buried Chavez Jr., first beneath jabs, then uppercuts and finally just about anything Canelo wanted to throw.
The crowd, perhaps, expected Chavez Jr. to live up to the legend his father was. But those expectations were unfair to Chavez Jr., a man with only the legendary name and none of the skill to carry it on for another generation.
Chavez Jr. was never Mexico’s heir apparent anyway. Canelo knew that and proved that almost with an unmerciful intensity.
There were moments when it simply looked as if he were toying with Junior, who got a kiss on the cheek from his father a few moments before opening bell
Canelo played a little rope-a-dope, inviting Chavez in to throw a few punches. Then, he would bounce off the ropes – and thump, thump, thump – pound away at a rival he never liked. All the while, Canelo never sat down between rounds.
He listened to his corner. He paced a little. Then, he went back to work, not so much against Chavez but on the GGG who awaits him.
Lemieux wins tough decision
David Lemieux might be an option for a shot at a middleweight title. But options didn’t matter much for 10 rounds Saturday night. Lemieux found himself in surprising battle, a test of will, against tough Marco Reyes Saturday night in the final fight before Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Canelo Alavrez took center stage on a HBO pay-per-view card at T-Mobil Arena.
Lemieux (38-3 33 KOs) finally emerged with victory, a unanimous decision, but not before a bloodied Reyes (35-5, 26 KOs) repeatedly came back at him, making him wonder and then work for a tough victory.
Lemieux’s powerful shots rocked Reyes around the ring for the first three rounds. Blood from wound above Reyes right eye pours down his cheek, over his chin, onto his shoulder and across his chest. But he would not quit. He pumped a gloved hand at the crowd. He winked at fans he knew in ringside seats. Survival is fun. At least, it was for the gutsy Reyes, who was even penalized a point after the eighth round for a blow thrown after the bell
Matthysse back with a stoppage
Matthysse was back with some of the Machine-like power he had before a 19-month layoff, landing piston-like rights to hurt, then drop and finally finish Emannuel Taylor in a fifth-round welterweight stoppage Saturday night on the HBO pay-per-view card featuring Canelo Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at T-Mobile Arena.
Matthysse (38-4, 35 KOs), a former junior-welterweight champion, was coming off a KO loss to Viktor Postol, who also left him with a fracture to his left-eye socket. There were questions about whether the Argentine could ever be the same. Consider those questions answered. The first answer was a right that backed Taylor (20-5, 5 KOs) into the ropes late in the first The second was a similar right in the following round. Then, there was the third, a knockdown after Mathysse’s right eye was bloodied in a head butt in the following round.
The final answer landed in the fifth with a body-and-head combination that dropped Taylor and left referee Jay Nady with no choice but to end it in a TKO at 2:21 of the round.
Jo Jo Diaz opens PPV show with dull, yet decisive decision
Not much happened, but whatever did was initiated by Jo Jo Diaz, who remained unbeaten and moved a little closer to a shot at a major featherweight title with a unanimous decision over Manuel Avila Saturday in the first televised bout on the HBO pay-per-view card featuring Canelo Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. at T-Mobile Arena.
Diaz (24-0, 13 KOs), of South El Monte, Calif., was the aggressor throughout and managed to rock a tentative Avila (22-1, 8 KOs), of Fairfield, Calif., with a combination to the head and body in the ninth of 10 rounds.
Ryan Garcia scores swift stoppage
Ryan Garcia, a lightweight from Victorville, Calif., didn’t waste much time. He didn’t have to.
Garcia (9-0, 7 KOs) scored a knock down of Tyrone Luckey (8-7-3) seconds of the opening bell. He ended it at 20 seconds after the start of the second, a TKO in the last bout on the non-televised part of the Canelo-Chavez Jr. undercard Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.
Ex-Olympian Marlen Esparza goes to 2-0 as a pro
Houston flyweight Marlen Esparza (2-0) fought for only the second time since she won a bronze medal for the United States at the 2012 Olympics. It’s been a while. But it was a technical gem. Esparza scored repeatedly with precision and timing, from a distance and from angles in the fourth bout on the non-televised portion of the Canelo-Chavez undercard. Samantha Salazar (2-4-1), of Dallas, never had a chance, losing a decision in a shut out — 40-36 on all three cards.
Mexican prospect wins majority decision in debut
It wasn’t an easy debut. Then again, beginnings are also supposed to include lessons and Mexican prospect Raul Curiel got a few in winning a majority decision in the third bout Saturday on the non-televised positron of the Canelo-Chavez Jr. card T-Mobile Arena.
Curiel, who is managed by Frank Espinoza, had more more power and quicker hands than fellow Mexican Jesus Sanchez (1-2-2) in a super-welterweight bout. He scored, yet was sporadic over a four rounder that ended with him winning 40-36 on two cards. On the third, it was a 38-38 draw.
Second Bout Blowout: Ronny Rios wins powerful TKO
California super-bantamweight Ronny Rios had all of the power. Daniel Noriega was simply in the way, unable to elude it or counter it. A stoppage was inevitable.
After a knockdown of Noriega (28-11-1, 15 KOs), of Mexico, in the third round, it came at 2:22 of the fourth midway through a sustained blitz of heavy, head-rocking hands from Rios (28-1, 13 KOs). Finally, referee Vic Drakulich stepped in and stopped the assault in the second bout, ending the second bout Saturday on the non-televised portion of the Canelo-Chavez undercard at T-Mobile Arena.
There were almost more people in the ring than in the seats. But Joseph Aguirre, Angel Aispuro were there to get things started in the first bout on the non-televised part of the Canelo Alvarez-Juilio Cesar Chavez Jr. Saturday card with matinee show at T-Mobile Arena.
Aguirre (17-0, 9 KOS) won it. Too bad there wasn’t to applaud him. The Mexican lightweight was dominant, scoring a one-sided decision — 60-54 on all three cards — over Aispuro (8-5-2, 5 KOs), who could never get inside his long, stinging jab and a solid, sneaky hook,
