Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez started tonight's fight with a promising opening left hook that temporarily and ever so fleetingly dropped challenger Alfonso Gomez. Gomez immediately returned to his feet and from there the tables turned.
From rounds two almost up until the finish, Canelo didn't pump the jab terribly effectively and for several rounds was content to throw single, heavy strikes. In the sixth round, Canelo connected with several punches in the course of a strong flurry. But was it justified? Brent Brookhouse describes the action:
The story of the fight as the time wore on was Canelo's power punches against the higher punch output and workrate of Gomez.
In the sixth though, the power simply caught up and Canelo landed a huge uppercut and followed up with a couple shots that had Gomez stumble backward across the ring and into the ropes. Alvarez followed up with a flurry of powerful punches while Gomez didn't punch back and forced the referee to jump in and call a halt to the bout, to the delight of the crowd.
Gomez said in the follow up the referee was looking for a reason to stop the fight and did when he got it. It's an obvious reference to Alvarez's esteemed perch in the sport and the sport's desire to see him suceed even when he shouldn't.