Canelo busts up Saunders' eye, scores TKO to move closer to undisputed title
Brit retires on stool with damaged eye
ARLINGTON, Texas – Pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez keeps marching toward the undisputed super middleweight title with another big victory.
Boxing’s biggest star busted up Billy Joe Saunders’ right eye and forced his corner to end the fight after the eighth round on Saturday night at AT&T Stadium, where a United States indoor boxing record crowd announced at 73,126 turned out to cheer wildly for Alvarez on during Cinco de Mayo weekend.
The atmosphere was electrifying as the crowd broke the American indoor attendance record of 63,352 for the heavyweight championship rematch between Muhammad Ali and Leon Spinks at the Superdome in New Orleans on Sept. 15, 1978.
Alvarez looked outstanding as he retained The Ring 168-pound championship as well as the WBC and WBA belts while also taking Saunders’ WBO title in a destructive performance that left Saunders slumped on the stool with a battered right eye and an ensuing trip to the hospital for a suspected broken orbital bone.
Alvarez now stands one belt from being the first super middleweight to hold all of the major sanctioning body titles in the three- or four-belt era. He will try to entice IBF titleholder Caleb Plant into facing him on Mexican Independence Day weekend in September.
I covered the event for RingTV.com. Please read my main event story on Alvarez’s tremendous victory right here: https://www.ringtv.com/621578-canelo-alvarez-stops-billy-joe-saunders-after-round-8-unifies-super-middleweight-belts/
Official scorecard
Soto stops Takayama in co-feature
In the co-feature, Elwin Soto retained the WBO junior flyweight title for the third time with an old fashioned beat down of former four-time strawweight titlist Katsunari Takayama, whom he stopped in the ninth round.
Takayama showed a lot of spirit and heart but at 37, he just couldn’t hang with the younger, fresher Soto.
In the fight before that, junior middleweight prospect Souleymane Cissokho survived a ninth-round knockdown for a split decision over Kieron Conway.
Heavyweight up-and-comer Frank Sanchez won a sixth-round technical decision over journeyman Nagy Aguilera, who seemed to massively overexaggerate a phantom punch behind the head and got the ref to rule it an accidental foul.
Junior lightweight prospect Marc Castro looked outstanding in his third fight as he pummeled Irving Macias Castillo in a fourth-round knockout victory.
You can read my undercard story at RingTV.com on those bouts and the rest on the undercard right here: https://www.ringtv.com/621573-elwin-soto-stops-katsunari-takayama-in-9-to-retain-junior-fly-belt-on-canelo-saunders-card/
Photos: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing
The only difference in judges scorecards was the 7th round where only one Judge (Tim) saw BJS winning it. Not bad.
Laurence Cole one of the worst ref's in boxing called a halt against Takayama who I had ahead 6-2 in rounds. No reason for stoppage as he threw the last punch and the commentators and fans agreed to quick no reason stoppage.