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Saul "Canelo" Alvarez kept his WBC junior middleweight via sixth round stoppage of Alfonso Gomez, who fought better than just about anyone expected and put on a tough effort, rounding out the Mayweather vs Ortiz pay-per-view undercard with a third straight good fight.
Alvarez (38-0-1, 28 KO) was having some trouble with Gomez (23-5-2, 12 KO) earlier in the bout, but in the fifth round started overpowering Gomez. In the sixth round, Alvarez landed a vicious right uppercut that stung Gomez, and then he backed him down with a right to the temple. Alvarez chased Gomez down and unloaded with shots, but Gomez blocked very well. Still, referee Wayne Hedgpeth stepped in and stopped the bout at 2:36 of the sixth round.
It's a tough loss for Gomez, and I felt the stoppage was a bit premature. But it was not a truly terrible stoppage, either -- Gomez was not throwing back, and Alvarez was getting shots through the guard, too. Gomez did his best to survive there, but the referee just didn't think it was quite good enough to continue the contest. At that point, it did look like Canelo Alvarez was well on his way to victory, too. That doesn't really make a difference, but I don't think the eventual outcome was changed by the stoppage.
It's worth noting again that all three fights on tonight's pay-per-view undercard were good action bouts, as I was expecting and even more, hoping. That it lived up to expectations was unusual, and has made the night go along very quickly and smoothly. More action-focused undercards, please.
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