Before we talk about the fight, we have to talk about the scorecard turned in by CJ Ross.
114-114
You don’t have to be a boxing expert or even a boxing novice to know this was nowhere near a draw. The 116-112 card for Mayweather was being generous to Canelo, but the draw was something that should be cause for a firing. CJ Ross also had Bradley beating Pacquiao and to be frank this card was worse than that one. Bradley at least had some moments, even Canelo knew he did didn’t win the fight. There are a lot of problems in boxing, but they have to get their judges under control, because we almost had another robbery.
As far as the fight, as I said in my prediction this isn’t rocket science. It isn’t like we haven’t seen this for years. Mayweather is the master of hitting and not getting hit. One thing that has change as he has gotten older, is he has become more aggressive, while not losing his defensive fundamentals.
Canelo Alvarez is a very good young fighter, but his inexperienced showed. The things he has got away with during other fights (slow starts, taking breaks during rounds, not throwing enough punches) Mayweather took advantage of round after round.
Mayweather who sometimes doesn’t use his jab a lot, tonight he used it effectively to keep Canelo off him (he landed 42% of his jabs). Canelo, like many Mayweather’s opponents started to get frustrated very quickly. Canelo stopped going to the body, stopped jabbing and started head hunting. He played right into Mayweather’s hands who didn’t just beat him to the punch, but countered him consistently with right hands and left hooks. Even though Mayweather threw 57 less power punches, he landed 20 more.
Once again, not rocket science Mayweather hit him more while not getting hit much. That is what Mayweather has been doing for almost 20 years now.
What’s next for Mayweather? Probably, Danny Garcia, but we won’t know for a while. This defeat won’t hurt Canelo in the long run, he will be fine, this will a learning experience for him.
Great night overall, beyond the one atrocious scorecard.