Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Latin Times
Latin Times
Sport
Héctor Ríos Morales

'Canelo' Álvarez secures unanimous decision vs Munguía, keeps super middleweight titles

Canelo landed more jabs (83 to 74) and more power punches (151 to 96) than Munguía throughout the bout (Credit: Via @premierboxing on X/Twitter)

SEATTLE - In the first-ever super middleweight title fight featuring two Mexican fighters, Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez was the one that came out on top, defeating Jaime Munguía by unanimous decision to preserve his undisputed title. Before today, there had never been a world title fight featuring two Mexican-born fighters above the 160-pound division.

Munguía started the fight with tremendous energy, winning two of the first three rounds. It took Canelo four rounds to assert his gameplan, knocking down Munguía with 30 seconds left in the fourth. It was the third fight in a row in which Canelo scored a knockdown after he dropped Jermell Charlo and John Ryder in his previous two fights.

Ever since that fourth round, Munguía knew he had to knockout Álvarez in order to win. Using all the experience gained in countless title fights, Canelo started to push Munguía back with power punches to the lower body. Even though Álvarez seemed to be in control of the fight, Munguía still out-landed Canelo 57-56 after four rounds.

By the sixth round, Munguía became more selected with his punches but Álvarez' right-handed counters took the steam out of the young challenger.

By the start of the eight round, Munguía seemed to catch a second breath of fresh air and countered Canelo's jab with nice combinations that pushed Álvarez against the ropes.

But even though Munguía put pressure on the undisputed champion between the eight and ninth rounds, Canelo controlled the tail-end of the bout, landing 33 of his 59 power shots in the 10th and 11th.

With three minutes to go, Álvarez used all his experience to close down the fight. With results of 117-110, 116-111 and 115-112, the judges gave Canelo his third consecutive decision win and improved to 61-2-2 in his professional career.

After a very shaky start through three rounds, Canelo dominated the bout landing at least 10 power punches per round until the end of the fight.

Despite being Munguía's biggest fight of his career, the Tijuana native did not disappoint and gave his best shot at the champion. He threw 100 punches more than Canelo but only landed 25% of them, compared to Canelo's more selective approach, landing 43% of his 536 punches in the night.

Canelo vs Munguía stat report - Via @CompuBox on X/Twitter

As Álvarez was announced the winner, he didn't hold back and sent a message to his critics saying that, if the money is right, he is willing to fight anybody at any time.

© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.