IT WAS close indeed, but I think Canelo Alvarez may have silenced a lot of doubters, this Last Rounder included.
Though he acquitted himself quite well in two fights against Gennady Golovkin, I think last Sunday’s fight against Daniel Jacobs demonstrated a lot about his ring generalship and how he has morphed into one efficient fighting machine.
THE FIGHT. Alvarez started out strong and dictated the pace of the fight behind a commanding jab. He looked sharp, fast and accurate.
Jacobs is notorious for being a slow starter and though he was also landing sporadically, Alvarez owned him in the first quarter of the fight.
In the middle rounds, Jacobs shift stances to southpaw as he usually does. It netted him mixed results.
Alvarez seemed to anticipate this strategy and was quite ready for it. Jacobs would indeed land punches as this allowed him to throw from different angles. But his defensive stance suffered and Alvarez would often make him pay dearly.
Jacobs started to get busy in rounds 8 to 10 and this was where he made his move. Alvarez seemed to take his foot off the pedal and Jacobs started landing punches in bunches.
He would march forward, landing jabs and hooks while Alvarez would be content to land a counter or two in return.
The championship rounds were close and could have been scored either way, but the pattern was quite repetitive- Jacobs was busy and landed a few more. But Alvarez’s blows were more powerful and landed with much more torque behind them.
The scores 116-112, 115-113 (twice) were emblematic of the close proceedings, as it showed that Jacobs could not overcome the lead that Alvarez built up early as all the judges had him winning at least 4 of the first 5 rounds.
CANELO. Alvarez (52-1, 35KOs) is still at his prime at 28 years of age. He has faced the best in his division and I would say is now a complete multi-dimensional fighter.
He has a great chin and his defense has improved a lot as well. His upper body movement, all that weaving and bobbing, had Jacobs hitting nothing but thin air.
VERBATIM. “I know it was back and forth action, but for me early on it was hard to get the rhythm of Canelo. Once I got the rhythm I thought I started to push him back and it became a really competitive fight.” -Daniel Jacobs (www.nypost.com)
LAST ROUND. It’s on little Cherub, Bella Mae D. de Pio who turns one this week. Cheers to proud parents Karl and Angela Ivy!