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By Cliff Rold - 20-year old Mexican crowd favorite Saul Alvarez (37-0-1, 27 KO) won his then-vacant WBC Jr. Middleweight belt in March with a win over a fighter who wasn’t even a Jr. Middleweight. The hollow accomplishment began a path to validation Saturday night at the Arena VFG in Alvarez’s native Jalisco, Mexico with a dominating twelfth round stoppage of a sturdy fringe contender within his class, 34-year old Ryan Rhodes (45-5, 31 KO) of Sheffield, England. It was Rhodes’s third knockout loss.
Both men came into the contest below the division limit of 154 lbs., Alvarez at 153 ¼ and Rhodes at 152 ½.
Alvarez began circling to his left away from Rhodes, slipping a soft lead left from Rhodes near the ropes. They tested each other with measuring, missing jabs, Alvarez missing his own lead left wildly near the halfway point of the round. Rhodes picked off a right and landed a left hand to the face of Alvarez with about a minute to go. Alvarez would answer in the final thirty seconds with some combinations, Alvarez able to touch Rhodes with a left hook and right hand before the first three minutes had passed.
Rhodes again came forward at the start of the second but the roles quickly reversed. Rhodes played with his stance in the round, spending the latter half in his natural southpaw form. Playing the aggressor, Alvarez brought roars from the crowd with brief combinations. Alvarez struggled as the round progressed to get his right hand through against the southpaw guard of Rhodes, the crowd occasionally booing the uneven action. The description was apt in the third as well, Rhodes truing to box his man and Alvarez settling for single, hard shots where openings allowed. [Click Here To Read More]
Both men came into the contest below the division limit of 154 lbs., Alvarez at 153 ¼ and Rhodes at 152 ½.
Alvarez began circling to his left away from Rhodes, slipping a soft lead left from Rhodes near the ropes. They tested each other with measuring, missing jabs, Alvarez missing his own lead left wildly near the halfway point of the round. Rhodes picked off a right and landed a left hand to the face of Alvarez with about a minute to go. Alvarez would answer in the final thirty seconds with some combinations, Alvarez able to touch Rhodes with a left hook and right hand before the first three minutes had passed.
Rhodes again came forward at the start of the second but the roles quickly reversed. Rhodes played with his stance in the round, spending the latter half in his natural southpaw form. Playing the aggressor, Alvarez brought roars from the crowd with brief combinations. Alvarez struggled as the round progressed to get his right hand through against the southpaw guard of Rhodes, the crowd occasionally booing the uneven action. The description was apt in the third as well, Rhodes truing to box his man and Alvarez settling for single, hard shots where openings allowed. [Click Here To Read More]
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