From the opening bell, Canelo Álvarez appeared destined for the knockout victory against the obligatory rival Avni Yildirim. Alvarez didn’t have to wait long for that.
Yildirim corner threw in the towel at the end of the third round as Alvarez won a TKO victory and retained his WBC and WBA middleweight belts Saturday night at Miami Gardens Hard Rock Stadium. Florida.
After the fight, Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing confirmed that Alvarez will face WBO incumbent Billy Joe Saunders in a unification bout on May 8 at a location to be determined.
“I wanted to have a big fight here,” Alvarez, through a translator, told the crowd at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, where attendance was limited to 15,000 due to restrictions on the COVID-19. “I needed to call [him] out, and that’s what I did. That’s what I had to do. “
Alvarez (55-1-2) was the only fighter in the ring pressing the action in the first three rounds. At the beginning of the fight, Alvarez threw hooks around Yildirim’s high guard and threw the body of the Turkish fighter.
And even in a fight against someone of Yildirim’s caliber, Alvarez showed the insight of the ring that established him as a status as one of the best wrestlers for free in boxing. Instead of a hook, Alvarez planted Yildirim with a straight right hand with more than two minutes left to finish the third round.
Yildirim (21-3, 12 KOs) survived the round and even as he sat in his corner before the fourth round, he seemed to be in play for at least three more minutes.
Coach Joel Diaz asked Yildirim to show more things after about three sparse rounds.
“I’m going to give you one more round of play,” Diaz told Yildirim on the corner during DAZN’s TV broadcast.
Still, even that was too much to ask for. Another member of Yildirim’s corner climbed into the apron and demanded that the fight be stopped, a forced request.
According to CompuBox statistics, the fight was as uneven as it seemed. Alvarez beat Yildirim 67-11, including a 58-4 lead in the coups. In the third fundamental round, Alvarez threw 53 punches while throwing the opportunity to overflow Yildirim, who tried to catch the Mexican champion without success.
Alvarez secured his second victory in three months and held two of the four belts in the 168-pound division. You won’t have to wait much longer to have a shot at the third title. The fight against Saunders gives Alvarez the opportunity to take a step closer to being the undisputed champion and strengthen his case for being the best Mexican fighter of all time.
Saunders (30-0, 14 KOs) has held the WBO middleweight belt since beating Shefat Isufi in May 2019.
“I want to make history,” Alvarez said through a translator in the post-fight interview. “I want to be one of the best in the world.”