Coming off of his second fight in the biggest battle of his career so far, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez didn’t waste time when defeating Rocky Fielding. The Mexican boxer won strictly off of body punches, scoring four knockdowns in three rounds with all of them below the neck. Canelo won the WBA Super Middleweight title in what was his first bout in the weight class.
Heading into the bout the biggest topic of discussion was how Fielding had a notable reach and height advantage. Fielding was, by some, thought of as someone who might survive Alvarez, instead of being someone who could defeat him. Canelo was able to keep the fight close and personal, giving him the advantage throughout. Reach was made irrelevant as they were fighting inside a phonebooth, and height didn’t matter when the focus in the fight was below the head.
In under nine minutes of boxing, the Briton Super Middleweight did have some offense, landing flurries few and in-between. It looked like his punches were weak, as it never put a hiccup in Canelo’s pace. Fielding’s attack might have involuntarily taken a quantity over quality mindset.
Fielding wasn’t billed as a star leading up to the bout, with most promotion being focused on Canelos’ debut at Madison Square Garden. It was also the prizefighter’s first bout that aired on DAZN, a streaming service which has been heavily pursuing combat sports in 2018. Canelo’s last fight before last weekend was for HBO, who closed their boxing operation permanently earlier this month. That fight was a rematch against Gennady Golovkin after reaching a tie in their first encounter. He handed GGG his first loss after they fought for the 24th round when combining both fights together.
Canelo has many options on the table currently, with the biggest of all most likely being a trilogy bout against GGG. The fight is at least the biggest when it comes to public or mainstream interest. With 10 fights left on his DAZN contract, Canelo has many options for his next step.
JackWannan.com 