Canelo vs Scull LIVE: Fight updates, results and reaction tonight
Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez fights William Scull, as the Mexican icon makes his Saudi debut and aims to preserve a super-fight with Terence Crawford
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez became a two-time undisputed super-middleweight champion on Saturday, outpointing William Scull to keep alive a super-fight with Terence Crawford.
Canelo, making his debut in Saudi Arabia, earned scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 119-109, though the former card flattered Scull, who was reluctant to engage throughout and focused on being elusive. Mexican icon Canelo, meanwhile, relied on intermittent power punches to the body for the most part, while stalking the 32-year-old Cuban around the ring.
With his victory, Canelo took the IBF belt from Scull, adding it to his WBC, WBA and WBO titles. The 34-year-old also handed Scull his first professional loss.
Canelo’s win kept him on track for a planned clash with fellow pound-for-pound star Crawford in September. It was already expected that the bout would take place in Las Vegas that month, and Saudi adviser Turki Alalshikh said on Saturday that 12 September is the specific date being targeted, at Allegiant Stadium.
Re-live the action below.
Canelo vs Scull LIVE: How did Cuban’s sparring with Conor Benn really go?
Ahead of Conor Benn’s middleweight defeat by Chris Eubank Jr last week, the former’s father, Nigel, dismissed usual boxing etiquette to spill some sparring stories. He insinuated that Conor bullied Scull recently, and that the latter quit after eight rounds.
“I was at a different stage in my preparation than him,” Scull told The Ring, aiming to set the record straight. “We had good rounds, maybe in some of them he touched me more and in some I touched him more. That’s sparring.
“But I heard the way his father told it, and it’s not true. That I took my gloves off, that’s a lie; that I quit, that’s a lie.”
Perhaps more pertinently, Scull’s promoter Ingo Volckmann told iFL TV: “We said we make eight rounds, we said we make one-minute stop, because it was our first sparring. He was already doing some sparring – eight rounds. We said eight rounds, we did eight rounds.
“I really have to laugh a little bit. First of all, even if it [had been] like this, nobody speaks about it; [that’s] sportsmanship. Next time [...] we’ll make 14 rounds with him. We can do it easily.”
Canelo vs Scull LIVE: Inside Alvarez’s brutal blueprint for a fight-ready physique
You might be familiar with the phrase “hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard”. Canelo shows what’s possible when mercurial talent and relentless hard work intersect.
Throughout his career, he’s repeatedly sought out high-calibre opponents – and repeatedly sat them down through a cocktail of inventive combinations, powerful counterpunches and a rarely-matched ring IQ. For this reason, he’s widely considered to be among the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world.
But how does a fighter of his ability train to maintain his impressive record? And what strength and conditioning techniques does he use to improve his performance levels?
As a fitness writer, I’ve reviewed every training video I could find of Canelo’s workouts away from the ring – and identified a few common threads:
Canelo-Scull: Inside Alvarez’s brutal blueprint for fight-ready physique
Canelo vs Scull LIVE: The odd performance Alvarez needs to get fans invested in Crawford fight
So, Canelo finds himself in the strange position of needing to be good against William Scull tonight, but maybe not too good.
As Canelo makes his Saudi debut and aims to become a two-time undisputed super-middleweight champion, he is not only defending his unified titles; he is aiming to preserve the biggest bout of his career: September’s planned super-fight with Terence Crawford.
In that sense, the Mexican icon of course needs a win, which is exactly what is expected in Riyadh. Yet there is an argument that there might actually be some downside in an emphatic victory.
It all relates to that match-up with Crawford – one of the biggest of a generation, but also one of the most contrived.
Full article:
The odd performance Canelo needs to get fans invested in Terence Crawford fight
Canelo vs William Scull LIVE: Welcome!
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez fights William Scull tonight, as the Mexican icon makes his Saudi debut and aims to preserve a super-fight with Terence Crawford.
Canelo puts his unified super-middleweight titles on the line against IBF champion Scull, in a bid to become a two-time undisputed champion in the division.
And if Canelo is victorious, he’ll stay on track for a planned super-fight with Crawford, a fellow pound-for-pound talent who is due to venture up to 167lb to box Alvarez in September.
Scull, 32, is undefeated, but the Cuban has never faced an opponent of Canelo’s pedigree. Tonight’s main event in Riyadh could therefore produce a showcase performance from Alvarez, 34, as he approaches the biggest bout of his career.
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