Pure excitement ran through the Mandalay Bay in Vegas as Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez entered the ring to fight on Saturday night. People were clearly expecting big things. Now it was up to the combatants to make it happen.
The first round of the lineal middleweight title fight was a chess match and quite close - but the edge went to Cotto. Connecting early in the second, Cotto proceeded to remain on the balls of his feet while moving about. By the third, Canelo began to assert his punching power.
In the fourth, however, Cotto worked the body hard and started flashing punches right into Canelo's face. That was his round, but Canelo landed hard again in the fifth. It was interesting, that fifth round. Canelo landed harder, while Cotto showed better skill, at least at times.
The sixth was also close, but that too seemed to be Cotto's, albeit by very little. The HBO broadcast team, along with many on Twitter, had it for Canelo. And while Canelo certainly looked to be in a good place at the end of the seventh. the eight turned into an out and out brawl, with the edge going to Cotto.
The ninth was close enough to go either way, I thought, while the tenth clearly belonged to Canelo. The eleventh was anyone's, but the twelfth - which was an all out war - was Canelo's.
In the end, the judges gave it to Canelo by a wide, unfair margin. It's one of the rotten things about boxing - such unfair judging. Still, it was an entertaining affair that more than lived up to the hype. It wasn't the victory for Canelo that made it annoying - but the scoring.
At any rate, the Meixcan star looked excellent and deserves a lot of credit - especially for appear eager to fight GGG in the post fight interview.
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