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Canelo Drops
Berlanga In Third, Retains
Titles With Unanimous Decision Victory
By William Trillo
Photos: German Villasenor
In front of a sold-out house at the T-Mobile Areana in
Las Vegas, Saul Canelo Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KO’s) and
Edgar Berlanga (22-1,17 KO’s) gave the 20,302 in
attendance a very good show over the twelve round
championship bout.
Canelo dropped Berlanga with left hook about a minute
into the third round and it appeared this one would be
over quickly. But Berlanga is a young strong fighter,
and he got up and fought on. "When I knocked him down,”
said Canelo, “I wanted to fight smart. I listened to
Eddy Reynoso, boxed and gave a great show for my
people.”
Berlanga surprised a lot of fans in the house with his
resilience as he took the best Canelo had to offer, but
never quit. Although Canelo probably won the bulk of the
rounds after the knockdown, Berlanga proved he just
wasn’t there for a payday. "We're fighters and we try to
throw our opponent off their game,” said Berlanga. “I
took his best shot, and I knew I could take his punches
and return them. I could have jabbed a lot more, but I
was in there with a legend.”
Things got chippy a couple times in the fight due to
some questionable clinches and breaks, and the intensity
of the battle peaked in those moments. Round five saw
some hot-tempered extracurricular activities due to the
roughhouse clinching.
In the middle rounds, starting in the sixth, the
fighters were both looking to counterpunch as they
traded in the middle of the ring. Canelo’s stiff jab and
body work gave him the edge as Berlanga seemed just a
bit tentative.
Canelo was on his game, he landed well over 50% of his
punches and never was in any trouble at all. The KO
artist Berlanga could never land a clean blow on the
Champions chin. "My experience and my talent were the
difference. It's about hard work and intelligence. It's
everything together. If you have talent, you need
discipline as well,” Canelo shared.
Final scores all in favor of Canelo read 117-110 and
119-109 twice. With the unanimous decision nod Canelo
retains WBC/WBO/WBA Super Middleweight Title straps.
Canelo added, "A lot of people say we can't, but we can.
Las Vegas is like a second home for Mexicans. We are
warriors and we never give up. I’m going to rest and
then I'm going to decide what's next."
The fight between Erislandy Lara (31-3-3, 19 KO’s) and
Danny Garcia (37-4, 21 KO’s) was one of the most lack
luster, (read dull), fights of all time. The booing
started in round one and didn’t end until the fight was
stopped by the Garcia team after the ninth round.
It was at the end of that ninth round that Lara landed a
couple punches to Garcia’s forehead. That forced Garcia
to take a knee. It was the first time he had been down
in his career. Garcia looked dazed and confused. Upon
returning to his corner, Garcia told his Dad that he was
through. With that, the bout was stopped after nine at
the request of the corner. There is not much more that
can be said about this one. Lara retained his WBA
Middleweight Title.
"I'm okay,” said Garcia. “I came off a two-year layoff
and tried to be great, and it wasn't my night. No
excuses.”
On his victory Lara said, "The punches I was landing
were hurting him. That punch that ended the fight was a
big shot. I'm here to stay. I have a lot of boxing left
in me.”
Caleb Plant (23-2, 14 KO’s) vs. Trevor McCumby (28-1, 21
KO’s) is one of those fights that you just had a feeling
was going to be good when the opening bell rang. The
fight lived up to all trash talking and it gave the fans
a thrill ride. Throwing the “Marques of Queensbury” out
the window, the punches were flying and landing
everywhere.
McCumby put Plant down in round four with an odd punch,
but Plant was quick to get back on his feet. "He caught
me pulling out and hit me in the shoulder,” said Plant,
“but that's part of the game.”
Soon thereafter McCumby started fighting off the ropes
for the majority of the rounds. That tactic would be his
undoing as Plant stayed on top of him with relentless
passion. McCumby was paying the price for laying on the
ropes. On that move McCumby admitted, "I look back and I
should have fought him more on the outside and worked my
long shots into short shots. But it was hard to adjust.”
After taking a pummeling for all of round nine, McCumby
was easy pickens for Plant. With a head-hunting barrage
of blows, Plant kept throwing until the ref stepped in
and halted the onslaught at the 2:59 mark of round nine.
With the victory Plant took home the WBC Interim Super
Middleweight Title.
In closing Plant said, "It was a pretty tough fight, I
was just easing in. I proved that I can fight on the
inside tonight and I did what I had to do to get that
WBA belt.”
Rolando Romero (16-2, 13 KO’s) looked dominant over
Manuel Jaimes (16-2-1, 11 KO’s) and seems comfortable
fighting in the Super Lightweight division. Over the
course of the ten-round bout, Romero just appeared much
stronger as he won almost every round over a very game
Jaimes. The final scores all in favor of Romero read
99-91 x 3.
After the bout Rollie said, "I needed a tough 10-round
fight against someone hungry and that's what I got
tonight. I was doing a lot of stuff tonight that I
should have done in my earlier fights. Hopefully I'm
fighting for a title next. I have my eye on any of the
champions."
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