By Jake Donovan
Saul Alvarez was forced to go the distance for just the second time in his past 13 contests, but still did more than enough to take a near-shutout win over former 140 lb titlist Lovemore N’Dou in their 12-round main event Saturday evening in Veracruz, Mexico.
The bout wasn’t anywhere close to the explosive performance Alvarez delivered against former lineal welterweight king Carlos Baldomir less than three months ago, but was enough to get the job done here and keep the capacity crowd of 20,000 or so pleased with the final outcome.
What remains to be seen is how pleased were the stateside network brass; the bout served as Alvarez’ debut on HBO Latino in a same day capacity (the bout was tape-delayed one hour), while also airing on Televisa in his native Mexico.
N’Dou did what he does best in the ring- frustrate his opponent and strip a fight clean of any potential fluidity. The former titlist’s tactics took a couple of rounds for Alvarez to navigate around, before finally settling into a groove around the third round.
At no point in the fight did the crowd stop believing, often chanting “CA-NE-LO!” in efforts to boost the spirits of the 20-year old manchild.
As the rounds progressed, Alvarez managed to close the gap and keep N’Dou on the defensive, often with his back touching the ropes as he fought behind a turtle shell defense.
Momentum briefly shifted in the sixth, easily N’Dou’s best round of the fight, although the glory didn’t even last the full three minutes.
The veteran took the lead for the first time of the night, working behind his jab and scoring with rights. Alvarez seemed confused at first, but enjoyed a surge with a minute to go in the round to rally the crowd.
Alvarez regained control of the bout in the seventh, although N’Dou managed to get in his licks on occasion. A warning in the eighth for holding behind the head seemed to invigorate Alvarez, who picked up the pace considerably as N’Dou went strictly into defensive mode.
Action slowed to a crawl in the ninth, but the crowd was having none of it. Rather than boo the lack of action, a collective Canelo chant once again picked up, inspiring Alvarez to let his hands go towards rounds end.
That moment represented the last notable sequence of action in the fight, though not entirely the fault of the house fighter. There reached a point in the fight where N’Dou was no longer interested in providing the kid with a stiff test or even fighting back at all, instead content to go all twelve.
Alvarez danced as hard as he could to make a fight of it, but was a bit sloppy in the final three rounds. It wasn’t enough to hurt him in the fight or even disappoint the crowd, but nor was it exactly a time capsule performance.
It was, however, enough to secure a lopsided win. Scores of 119-109 and 120-108 (twice) were in favor of Alvarez, who improves to 35-0-1 (26KO).
The win was his fifth of 2010, though the first time this year in which any of his bouts were required to go to the scorecards. A similar pattern occurred in 2009, in fact with his decision win over Lanardo Tyner taking place on this very weekend one year ago.
N’Dou falls to 48-12-2 (31KO) with the loss, snapping a three-fight unbeaten streak.
This bout took place at a catchweight of 150 lb, though both fighters are expected to drop back down to welterweight in their next respective fights. Plans for Alvarez call for an upgrade in competition in 2011, with hopes of a title shot by year’s end.
Even with the dissatisfying performance in terms of action, chances are that the stateside networks will remain along for the ride.
Alvarez remains a ratings magnet in Mexico, and the exclusive replay on HBO Latino of his knockout win over Baldomir this past September drew enough viewership to convince the network to showcase his talents at least for a one-off capacity.
Let’s hope that Saturday’s action-deprived performance was also a one-time exception.
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In a bout that didn’t make it to the live telecast but was shown via highlights, Daniel Ponce de Leon preserved his future featherweight title shot with a seventh round knockout over fringe Argentinean contender Sergio Medina.
Ponce de Leon scored three knockdowns in the bout - one in the opening round and two in the seventh, all courtesy of body shots. Medina beat the count on the first two, but the bout was waved off when he went down for the third time on the night.
The official time of the stoppage was 2:59 of the seventh round.
The win is the seventh in a row for Ponce de Leon, who improves to 41-2 (34KO). Medina falls to 35-4 (20KO), having now dropped three of his last five.
Both fighters were first-round knockout victims at the hands of Juan Manuel Lopez. Ponce de Leon was drilled for knockdown in their June 2008 bout that ended his junior featherweight title reign; Medina’s bout six months later was far less inspiring, to where he was accused of taking a dive and his reputation suffering irreparable damage.
Ponce de Leon’s string of wins – including a third round knockout of Antonio Escalante less than three months ago – has earned him a spot as mandatory challenger to the alphabet title Lopez currently possesses.
With Top Rank revealing earlier Saturday evening that a Lopez-Yuriorkis Gamboa showdown is off the table for the moment, a Lopez-Ponce de Leon remains a distinct possibility.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/JakeNDaBox or submit questions/comments to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.
