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Canelo Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr are set for battle tonight, squaring off in a 164-pound catchweight fight, billed as being for Mexican fighting pride and bragging rights. The fight will emanate from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KO) and Chavez (50-2-1, 32 KO) are both moving in weight here, Alvarez coming up from 154 and Chavez coming down from fighting at 168. Chavez is the notably bigger man, but we’ll have to see what his in-ring conditioning is like, too, and if making weight took too much out of him.
On the undercard, middleweight puncher David Lemieux (37-3, 33 KO) returns against Marcos Reyes (35-4, 26 KO) in a 163-pound catchweight fight; Lucas Matthysse (37-4, 34 KO) moves to welterweight to face Emmanuel Taylor (20-4, 14 KO); and unbeaten featherweight prospects Joseph Diaz Jr (23-0, 13 KO) and Manuel "Tino" Avila (22-0, 8 KO) will kick off the PPV card. All three undercard fights are set for 10 rounds.
Join us tonight!
Round 1: Here we go! Body shot early from Canelo, right hand got in. Left hook upstairs from Canelo. Chavez with an uppercut, then a hook to the body. Right hand up top from Canelo. Canelo jabbing. Chavez doing a lot of waiting, Canelo not usually a guy who leads, but this was his round. Alvarez 10-9
Round 2: Canelo outboxing Chavez handily so far, but obviously it's still very early. Chavez pushes Canelo to the ropes and his fans get quickly excited, knowing that's where he's got his best chance to do serious work. Chavez landing a few this round, but Canelo matching that, including working a nice uppercut. Canelo's jab has been effective. He's out-throwing Chavez at least 2-to-1 so far. Alvarez 10-9, 20-18
Round 3: Canelo shakes Chavez just a bit with a right hand. Jab, jab, jab. He's picking Chavez apart right now. Canelo puts together a combo that busts Chavez's nose. Chavez with a couple shots, but Canelo fights off the ropes and goes to the body with a hook. Alvarez 10-9, 30-27
Round 4: Canelo continues picking Chavez apart here in the first minute of this round. Chavez is too slow in every way, including mentally. Canelo now starting to beat him up a bit. Chavez has no answers. Alvarez 10-9, 40-36
Round 5: Canelo is just in complete control. Chavez struggling to even start figuring out what to do here. He's getting banged around and made to look silly. Alvarez 10-9, 50-45
Round 6: Total punches landed: Canelo 102, Chavez 25. Canelo continues to pop away. Chavez gets him to the ropes, and his fans get loud again, but he takes two steps back and does nothing. Canelo has gotten into his head. Chavez can't pull the trigger and is unsure of what to do at any point. Chavez/Beristain game plan here is topping Canelo’s game plan against Mayweather. And Roy brings it up, too. Good timing, my dude. Alvarez 10-9, 60-54
Round 7: Chavez lands a couple! Canelo comes back to continue taking him to school. There are some boo birds coming out at the end of this round. Chavez is being embarrassed in this fight. Alvarez 10-9, 70-63
Round 8: Canelo outboxing him again early, but Chavez does get him to the ropes and is trying to open up now. Two steps back, Canelo staying on the ropes and blocking shots. Lands a good counter. Canelo landing more hard combinations as the round wears on and Chavez goes back to aimlessly wandering the ring. This is an utter outclassing. Alvarez 10-9, 80-72
Round 9: And now we're at the point where the HBO commentators begin admitting this "event" is a fraud. Canelo just continuing to outright embarrass Chavez. This isn't a competition. Chavez hasn't won a minute. Alvarez 10-9, 90-81
Round 10: Uppercut from Canelo. He can do what he wants. Chavez's manager miming boxing motions at ringside. Outstanding. Complete wipeout so far. Alvarez 10-9, 100-90
Round 11: Crowd openly booing Chavez at this point. Canelo continuing to put on boxing lessons that Chavez can't pick up. Alvarez 10-9, 110-99
Round 12: Chavez’s effort has been so poor that even Golden Boy can’t really be happy with this. They’ll be happy their guy won, but that’s it. This round is like the rest. Alvarez 10-9, 120-108
Round 1: Reyes is the bigger, taller man, but Lemieux working effectively inside to start this one, and doing some good work in round one. Lemieux 10-9
Round 2: Reyes is landing a little bit. I mean, there's something to say. So far Lemieux is hunting but not finding anything big. Reyes is cut now, over the right eye, from a hook. That thing is bleeding pretty well. Lemieux 10-9, 20-18
Round 3: It takes mere seconds for the cut to open up again off of a single jab. Good uppercut inside from Lemieux. Reyes is showing signs of the power adding up on him already. Left hook shakes Reyes. Lemieux ignoring anything coming back from Reyes now, closing the distance and battering the body. Reyes sells out on a right hand, misses, Lemieux lands a big right back, another uppercut. Reyes holding up so far but getting smashed around right now. Right hand again from Lemieux, then back to the body. He's battering Reyes in this round. Lemieux 10-9, 30-27
Round 4: Two more hard hooks from Lemieux. Bless Reyes, he's eating some horrible shots. Reyes back with a body shot, but Lemieux resets. Reyes with a solid right hand. He's landing some. Hard right from Lemieux knocks Reyes' mouthpiece out. Reyes wisely ties up as soon as he can. Doesn't feel like losing all his teeth. I'll tell you, Reyes is doing some solid work in this round. Body shot lands, good right lands. Lemieux showing response to that now. Reyes 10-9, Lemieux 39-37
Round 5: What Reyes is doing isn't really pretty, but it's effective right now. He lands two rights, Lemieux lands a hook. We may be developing an interesting fight here. Slower round, think Reyes edged it. Reyes 10-9, Lemieux 48-47
Round 6: Reyes starting to look more confident in opening up his offense. Lemieux trying to slip shots now, he's changing his tactics. Reyes loses his mouthpiece again on a soft shot, ties up and gets a break. Good hook from Lemieux, Reyes stepped into it. Lemieux 10-9, 58-56
Round 7: Lemieux out with a hard right to start this round. Body shot from Lemieux. HARD left hook from Lemieux shakes Reyes. Reyes bleeding from the nose and his right eye now. This is another hard paced round from Lemieux. Left hook bounces off of Reyes' temple. Lemieux chasing the KO with a minute to go in the round. Reyes showing signs that he's hurt, and blinking away the blood in his right eye constantly. He's on his bike. Another left hook from Lemieux, right hand after misses. Lemieux 10-9, 68-65
Round 8: Hard right from Lemieux buckles Reyes, and then an uppercut lands and Reyes still stays up. Reyes is a hard man. Reyes throws a bunch of shots, not much mustard on them. Right hand again from Lemieux. Reyes' blood is all over both men. Lemieux not pressing this round, just looking for openings and defending himself against Reyes' sloppy rushes. Right hand from Lemieux upstairs again. A right from Reyes, again not much on it anymore. Reyes loses a point for hitting after the bell. Lemieux 10-9, -1 for Reyes, Lemieux 78-73
Round 9: Lemieux in firm control here. He's not taking any big risks, but he's got the fight in hand. If he's looking for a late KO, he's saving it for round 10. Lemieux 10-9, 88-82
Round 10: Let's see if Lemieux has a late highlight reel addition, or if Reyes can do something huge. Good right and a wicked left snaps Reyes' head back. Reyes trying to rally with Lemieux against the ropes. Not landing much of anything, but Reyes has a ton of heart. This is getting chippy late. Lemieux 10-9, 98-91
Round 1: Matthysse looks sharp early, doesn't look super rusty or anything. Has a mohawk now. Looking for his power shots. Taylor is a capable fighter and could be dangerous if Matthysse does have more rust than it might appear early. Good, hard right late in the round pushes Taylor back and hurts him a bit. Matthysse 10-9
Round 2: Taylor looking hesitant to start round two, and he's getting clipped with a looping, hard right from Matthysse. If that lands clean again, we could be looking at a ballgame call from Diamond Jim Lampley. Matthysse looks really sharp, much more so than I expected, just on the time out of the ring. He's got Taylor bending already. Matthysse 10-9, 20-18
Round 3: Heads clash, Matthysse cut outside the right eye. Action resumes after a check from the doctor. Taylor opening up now. HEY! Down goes Taylor on a right hand! He's up and will fight on, doesn't appear badly hurt. Matthysse cracks him with another right, Taylor rolls with that one a bit. Nice hook late from Matthysse, backs Taylor down again before the bell. Matthysse 10-8, 30-26
Round 4: Matthysse has no respect for what Taylor is throwing back at him at this point. He's broken through and has the confidence. This isn't a super huge round for Matthysse, but his power is still dictating everything about this fight. Matthysse 10-9, 40-35
Round 5: Taylor did land some shots last round, and is landing again to start this round. Taylor doing some work, landing two shots to the body and an uppercut to the head. Matthysse just eating it, though. Hard shot against the ropes and Taylor is down again! He's up but the fight is stopped. Matthysse TKO-5
Round 1: Feeling out first round for the most part. Diaz pressing a little bit more than Avila, perhaps. Diaz 10-9
Round 2: Diaz looking smart defensively so far, especially as Avila turns up the heat a little bit, but Avila is landing punches right now, too, though he's taking shots in return. Diaz controlling the distance as the round wears on, clever stuff from him. Late slip from Avila. Diaz 10-9, 20-18
Round 3: Diaz just a little better so far, I think. Avila is in these rounds but he's losing them by my eye. Diaz just might, as Lampley kinda noted earlier, be a bit too dynamic of a boxer for Avila, who looks a little basic thus far and isn't building any momentum in these rounds. Diaz 10-9, 30-27
Round 4: Avila landing some nice, hard shots in the first half of this round, might finally be building something. Diaz is hittable, and Avila is landing. Avila opening up his right hand especially, working it against the southpaw. Nice left hand counter from Diaz with about 25 seconds left. Still a close round, but I shade to Avila in this one. Avila 10-9, Diaz 39-37
Round 5: Kellerman notes that Avila has been able to neutralize Diaz's punch output, which is a good shout. I like the job Avila has done overall, he's proving he's a solid prospect and not a Belasco/Fantasy Springs creation. I give this round to Diaz, though, he kept range well. Diaz 10-9, 49-46
Round 6: Avila has a cut and it really seems to be bugging him, Diaz is getting off consistently now and starting to put punches together. Diaz using his jab more now, too, setting things up and targeting the cut at the same time. Diaz 10-9, 59-55
Round 7: This is, to put it mildly, a fairly dull fight. A bit of a snoozer. Just no sustained action whatsoever. I've given it a chance and all, and it's not boring me to death or anything, but I'm just not seeing anything special here from either guy. Diaz still winning this fight, and he looks comfortable now. Diaz 10-9, 69-64
Round 8: This fight is in control now, despite Avila still trying his best, to be fair. He's just getting worked now. Diaz in flashes puts punches together, which is good to see. The left eye of Avila is nearly closed shut, it appears. Diaz 10-9, 79-73
Round 9: Avila clipped with a left in the first minute, gets rattled just a bit. Diaz has him in the corner now. These styles haven't meshed at all for excitement, but it's now a fairly easy fight for Diaz. Diaz opening up with a big combination in the center of the ring, and Avila buckles a little bit again. Diaz 10-9, 89-82
Round 10: Avila pressing some here, trying to land his hook, trying to come up with something, but it's just too late and he doesn't have the tools to do something dramatic. Diaz with some nice body work late in the round. Diaz 10-9, 99-91