Canelo Alvarez held off a feisty challenger on Sunday (AEST), proving to be the stronger and more effective boxer to retain his undisputed super middleweight championship, winning by unanimous decision to hand Jaime Munguia his first loss.
Alvarez (61-2-2) started as a red-hot favourite and overcame a somewhat slow start to dominate Munguia (43-1) before a crowd of 17,492 inside the T-Mobile Arena.
The champ took full control after knocking down Munguia in the fourth round and ended up with the 117-110, 116-111, 115-112 unanimous decision win.
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The lead-up to the bout was unusually polite, with both fighters saying they were proud to represent Mexico on Cinco de Mayo weekend.
Alvarez saved his harshest criticism during week not for his opponent, but for Munguia’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, who used to be in the champ’s corner.
Munguia was the most aggressive boxer the first three rounds, even getting Alvarez into the ropes in the third – but there was no stopping the title-holder, who bounced back with his own lethal strikes.
Alvarez then proceeded to sting Munguia over the next four rounds with shots to the face. Munguia put together his own sets of flurries, but they did little noticeable damage to Alvarez.
That is until the ninth round when Munguia landed some blows to the face that sent Alvarez backward, including into the corner at one point.
But Alvarez responded with his own combinations, including coming out of the corner, in the fight’s most action-packed round.
The 10th and 11th rounds were close, but largely the same trends followed of Alvarez delivering the harder shots.
Munguia came out in the final round fighting as if he knew he was trailing on the judges’ card, but did little damage.
It was Alvarez who again came through with the best blows, using a combination with about a minute left to Munguia’s head and following with several more shots to end it.