Canelo Alvarez unifies middleweight titles with unanimous decision win vs. Daniel Jacobs
LAS VEGAS — Canelo Alvarez won yet another major fight in a career that is certain to land him in the International Boxing Hall of Fame, but this time he did it in a different manner.
It wasn’t so much Alvarez’s offense that won this one. It was his defense, his head movement and his ring generalship that led him to a unanimous decision Saturday over Daniel Jacobs at T-Mobile Arena. He retained the WBA and WBC middleweight belts and took Jacobs’ IBF belt by scores of 115-113 twice and 116-112. Yahoo Sports had it for Alvarez, 115-113.
Jacobs had a chance to win this fight, but he didn’t throw many punches in the early rounds and it cost him.
Alvarez jabbed, moved his head and generally took Jacobs’ offense away.
“It’s just what we thought,” Alvarez said via translator after the bout. “We knew he would be a difficult fighter, but we did things the right way, the way we were supposed to. It was just what we thought. We just did our jobs.”
Alvarez also is the lineal champion, and the only belt he doesn’t have is the WBO championship owned by Demetrius Andrade, who was at ringside. His ex-foe, Gennadiy Golovkin, was also ringside. Alvarez said he is open to fighting either of them.
“I’m looking for the biggest challenge, that’s all I want,” Alvarez said.” I’m looking for the biggest challenge. If people want another fight [with Golovkin], we’ll do it again and I’ll beat him again.”
Jacobs came on in the second half of Saturday’s fight, though he said he thought he won it. He admitted Alvarez’s speed surprised him and said he needed a few rounds to get his attack where he wanted it.
He never really had Alvarez in difficulty, though he landed a big left hook in the ninth.
“It took me a couple of rounds to get my wits about me and figure out his rhythm,” Jacobs said.
Against a shrewd veteran like Alvarez, he couldn’t afford to give anything away. He fought well, and could have won had he been able to open up more. Many of the rounds, though, he didn’t do much in the first minute or 90 seconds and it’s hard to win that way.
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