As has become its annual tradition, HBO wraps up the year with a four-night stretch featuring the best moments from the 2015 boxing season. A tripleheader of replays kicks off the run of nine HBO-televised fights being rebroadcast over the next four evenings beginning Sunday, December 27 at 11:05 p.m. ET/PT.
Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez enjoyed a triumphant return to HBO in every conceivable way. The 24-year old former 154 lb. titlist registered what presently serves as the leading contender for Knockout of the Year after flattening James Kirkland in the third round of their May 9 meet at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. The bout was Alvarez' first fight back on HBO following a nearly three-year hiatus. Absence truly made the heart grow fonder among HBO subscribers, as the live main event drew a staggering 2.146 million viewers, peaking at just under 2.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. With the moster ratings pull, Alvarez-Kirkland becomes the most-watched cable fight of 2015, a mark established just two weeks ago with HBO's April 25 event topped by Wladimir Klitschko's 12-round win over Bryant Jennings. The May 9 event is also the best performing boxing event on cable TV since June '06, when an exclusive rebroadcast of Bernard Hopkins' career-resurrecting win over Antonio Tarver drew more than 2.4 million viewers. The Hopkins-Tarver replay accompanied a live broadcast of Jermain Taylor and Winky Wright fighting to a draw in their middleweight championship bout in Memphis.
For every fighter, there is a window. It might be a decade. It might be a few years. That window, sometimes called ‘prime’ is the amount of time a fighter has to maximize their abilities in the ring. Watching “Canelo” Alvarez take James Kirkland apart on Saturday, two thoughts came to mind: Alvarez is in his window right now and making the most of it. Kirkland missed his window. Let’s go the report card.
by David P. Greisman - Canelo Alvarez was a star long before he even had a chance to prove his place among the best in the sport. He was a precocious prospect who turned pro at 15 years old and had won 33 fights before his teenage years ended. He had a charismatic personality and a fan-friendly approach, plus he was a good-looking, red-haired fighter from Mexico. Fans flocked to him. He brought huge numbers on television in his home country and drew some of the better ratings for boxing on HBO and Showtime in the United States. He was 19 when he was featured in the chief supporting bout on a Floyd Mayweather pay-per-view in 2010, was headlining on HBO the next year, and had grown so big that he was once the main event in Los Angeles on the same night and the same broadcast as a Mayweather pay-per-view otherwise airing from Las Vegas, all so that Alvarez could be paid well while bringing more sales for Mayweather’s show. He also drew nearly 40,000 people to his fight against Austin Trout in early 2013. All of that, plus the pair of world titles he had already won, brought him into a fight later in 2013 with the best boxer of this era, Mayweather, before Alvarez had even truly proven himself against the best in his division. It was as much a business transaction as a boxing match, the pairing of the most popular active fighters in their respective countries.
Although Canelo Alvarez scored three knockdowns on James Kirkland, including the sensational one-punch knockout that laid Kirkland out, he first had to weather an assault in the opening minutes. The way he did that, along with the result, caught the eye of Alvarez’s promoter, Hall of Fame fighter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions. “Kirkland came on so strong but Canelo kept his poise. He tried to keep his distance, but Kirkland was just so relentless,” De La Hoya said immediately afterward. “What really impressed me was his defense. He was dodging the left hooks that Kirkland was throwing. And the body shots — he knew that the body shots would do it. He used everything in his arsenal. But the most impressive punch was the body shot.
James Kirkland was simply not prepared to step in the ring with a fighter like Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez ... so says his ex-trainer Ann Wolfe who tells TMZ Sports he took the fight way too soon. Kirkland suffered a brutal knockout in the third round of his fight with Alvarez this weekend in Houston... after parting ways with Wolfe (his longtime trainer) earlier this year. Wolfe tells us ... Kirkland's first mistake was taking such a huge fight after a taking nearly a 17 month hiatus from the ring.
Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas - It was originally scheduled for 2012. Almost three years later we get the fight. Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (45-1-1, 32KOs) scored a vicious third round knockout of James Kirkland (32-2, 28KOs). Kirkland brought the drama to Canelo, landing hard combinations and getting Canelo to the ropes. Canelo started firing back and dropped Kirkland with a big right hand. Kirkland got up and started firing back but Canelo was unloading with both hands and had him in serious trouble in the closing moments. Kirkland went right back into trouble at the start of the second round, but he was able to weather the storm and started landing some very good shots on Canelo as he backed the Mexican star back to the ropes. Canelo was fighting back and seemed to be a little tired from trying to knock Kirkland out in earlier moments.
James Kirkland was down in the first, down again two rounds later, then put down for the count once more in the third round. He didn’t spot the punch from Canelo Alvarez that ended the fight on Saturday night in Houston, nor did he even know realize that he’d been knocked out. “I left my left hand down and he came over the top and caught me with a shot. I tried to regroup. The referee, he called it off,” Kirkland said in his initial post-fight interview, with HBO’s Max Kellerman.
Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas - Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez was too strong and too accurate for the questionable chin of James Kirkland. Canelo landed a whopping 60% of his power punches for the fight and closed the show by landing 16 of 20 (80%) in round three. Kirkland started strong, but was quickly dropped in the first round. He made it out and then started coming on in the second until he was dropped again with a big uppercut. And then he started going forward in the third and once again started getting tagged, found himself in trouble and ate a vicious right hand that put him down and out for the count.
Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas - David P. Greisman catches up with Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya, who discussed Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (45-1-1, 32KOs) scoring a vicious third round knockout of James Kirkland (32-2, 28KOs). Kirkland went down once in each round, with the third knocking coming from a massive right hand that caught Kirkland right on the chin and sent him down and out. De La Hoya talks about Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao, whether or not Canelo is intending to fight WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto next, and more.