Tonight's fights on HBO were a bit surprising, even if the winners were not. On the televised undercard, Ponce De Leon seemed to have won what many of us in the live thread thought was a pretty clear decision. No one in the thread, including a poster who saw the fight live, saw Adrien Broner winning--and especially not winning by the jaw-droppingly improbable score of 99-91, as one judge had it. Many rounds were close, and anywhere from a close Broner win to a fairly wide Ponce De Leon win wouldn't have concerned me, but that 99-91 score was so bad that the undercard left a bad taste in many mouths, which is too bad because the last few rounds were pretty entertaining.
On the main event, Alvarez dominated as expected, but Hatton, contrary to many expectations, went the distance. Between tonight's fight and his recent dominant--though also KO-less win against N'dou--Canelo isn't looking quite like the merciless KO artist he seemed against Baldomir. But there is no doubt about this kid's star potential though. Or his great lead left. Even if his lack of concern for defense gets him in trouble someday, I can't imagine anything but a great future for this guy. Both men comported themselves well in and outside the ring. It was nothing but respect after the fight, and both earned props as warriors and gentleman. Expect Alvarez to move up to 154 permanently soon, and I can see him going higher with his stout frame. He's gotten off lightly for not making weight tonight, and this really needs to not happen again. We'll see if he looks like quite the same human sledgehammer against bigger men in the ring.