Callum Smith can tell his grandchildren that he went 12 rounds with the great Canelo Alvarez. But he paid a price for the privilege.
Alvarez didn’t just beat Smith to take his super middleweight title Saturday at the Alamodome in San Antonio, he beat him up in a fight that was about as one-sided as it gets at the elite level of sport.
Smith’s ability to hear the final bell is a testament to his durability but that was his only accomplishment. He simply had neither the ability nor the power to make the fight competitive, meaning only fans of Alvarez were happy afterward.
The Englishman, unbeaten going into Saturday, seemed to have some hope on paper and in body structure going into the fight.
He has proved over and over again in his career that he’s a capable boxer and his physical advantages over Alvarez were obvious: He was seven inches taller than the challenger, depending on who was doing the measuring.
However, once the fight started, it was clear that height doesn’t win fights.
Alvarez (54-1-2, 36 KOs) used the first half of the first round to size up his much taller opponent and then began to walk him down, never stopping until the final bell sounded.
And why would he have stopped? Smith, the more natural 168-pounder, had nothing to throw at Alvarez that dissuaded him from coming forward. Most of the champion’s punches missed the mark – he landed only 18% of his shots, according to CompuBox – and Alvarez walked threw the ones that landed.
Meanwhile, Alvarez landed more and more bruising power shots to both the head – his uppercuts were his best punch — and body as the fight went on. In the end, he landed an absurd 57% of his power shots.
The fight was essentially over two thirds into the fight, when the same scenario played out round after round and it was clear that Smith (27-1, 19 KOs) couldn’t hurt Alvarez if he dropped his hands and stood still.
The only thing left Alvarez was to score a knockout. And he tried for one in the 12th round, when he unloaded one power punch after the other. However, Smith, who has never been down in his career, went into full survival mode and simply wouldn’t allow the fight to end inside the distance.
The final scores were 119-109, 119-109 and 117-111 in favor of Alvarez, who took Smith’s WBA title and also won the vacant WBC belt. Boxing Junkie had it 119-109, 11 rounds to one.
Alvarez has now won major titles in in four divisions – 154 pounds, 160, 175 against Sergey Kovalev in his last fight and 168 on Saturday – to bolster his credentials as one of the best fighters pound for pound.
What’s next for him?
He said after the fight that he wants to further unify the super middleweight titles, which means either Caleb Plant (IBF) or Billy Joe Saunders (WBO) could be his next opponent.
Alvarez also was asked about bitter rival Gennadiy Golovkin, with whom he has a draw and a close victory. He rolled his eyes when Triple-G’s name was mentioned but then said he was open to any challenge.
No one doubts that.
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