It was a fight of momentum shifts and some telling power displays from Canelo Alvarez, who got a deserved victory Saturday night against Miguel Cotto, becoming the new lineal middleweight champion and new (for now, at least) WBC middleweight titleholder on unanimous decision scores of 117-111, 118-110, and 119-109.
Canelo Alvarez beats Miguel Cotto by unanimous decision
After 12 pretty even rounds, Canelo Alvarez took home wide scores for the win tonight over Miguel Cotto.
SB Nation scored the fight a much closer 115-113 for Alvarez.
The victory for Canelo (46-1-1, 32 KO) is not the issue, but rather the scores seeming pretty ridiculously wide, at least compared to those who scored the fight on social media, including members of the boxing media, fighters, and others in and around the boxing game. Almost everyone seemed to agree that Alvarez won, but more of the scores were in the 115-113 and 116-112 range, representing a more competitive fight, which is what we saw.
Cotto (40-5, 33 KO) fought well tonight, but was at times overmatched by the younger, bigger, stronger Alvarez’s power, and that made the real difference in the bout. While Cotto couldn’t seem to back Canelo down at any point, Alvarez could hurt Cotto, and did so a few times. Canelo also seemed to have made some real improvements, and Cotto’s attempts to move laterally and outbox Canelo were not as successful as he and trainer Freddie Roach may have hoped.
Alvarez is reportedly being ordered by the WBC to fight Gennady Golovkin next, and supposedly has to make that deal within the next 15 days, but that’s for another time. For now, he’s coming off of the biggest win of his career, and has established himself as a new superstar for the sport of boxing.
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