Canelo Alvarez, with a fantastic performance in front of a loud and electric crowd at AT&T Stadium, unified three of the super middleweight titles with a eighth-round TKO victory over Billy Joe Saunders on Saturday night.
Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 knockouts) added the WBO belt to the WBA and WBC titles he was defending. Everything turned when Alvarez countered with a clean right hand to the right eye of Saunders toward the end of the eighth round. When Saunders walked back to his corner he indicated to his corner he couldn’t see out of his eye.
Alvarez said he thought he broke Saunders’ cheek. Saunders was sent to an area hospital after the fight.
The fight seemed closer than expected with two of the judges, Glenn Feldman and Max Deluca scoring the fight 78-74 for Alvarez. A third judge, Tim Cheatham had it 77-75 for Alvarez.
“No not at all I was winning round-by-round,” Alvarez said when asked on DAZN did he believe the fight was close. “My fight would improve around six and seven and I started to adjust real quick. I knew this would be final outcome. I knew it. I think I broke his cheek and knew he wasn’t coming out of the corner. I told (trainer) Eddie (Reynoso) he wasn’t coming out because I broke his cheek. I knew it was it. I have the best trainer. His name is Eddie. He’s the best trainer. He tell me and I prepare, do this and I do it.”
When the round ended, Saunders’ (30-1) right eye was swollen and there was a slight cut. It was a stunning ending for a fight where Alvarez was in control with hard inside shots and by stalking Saunders, who backed up numerous times in the middle rounds to avoid the power shots from his opponent.
The fight was held in front of 73,126 fans, making it the largest crowd for an indoor boxing event in United States history. With over 65,000 tickets sold going into Saturday, the final totals were determined when the luxury suites were counted.
The record crowd surpassed the previous record of 63,350 when Muhammad Ali defeated Leon Spinks in their rematch of a heavyweight title fight in New Orleans in 1978.
Alvarez said he would like to face IBF super middleweight champion Caleb Plant.
“That’s the plan,” Alvarez said. “That’s the plan to go for the belt and I’m coming my friend.”
On the undercards, Elwin Soto from San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico retained his WBO 108 pound title when Dallas referee Laurence Cole stopped his fight with Katsunari Takayama at 2:44 of the ninth round Soto (19-1, 13 KOs) was dominant for the majority of the fight and rocked his opponent at the end of several rounds. Cole stopped it when Takayama (32-9) failed to protect himself from an onslaught of punches.
Cuban heavyweight Frank Sanchez (18-0) earned a technical decision victory over Houston native Nagy Aguilera. The fight was stopped in the sixth round when Aguilera (21-11) couldn’t continue after getting hit behind the head.
Souleymane Cissokho (13-0) from Bagnolet, France retained the WBA Inter-continental junior middleweight title with a split decision victory over Kieron Conway (16-2-1) from Northampton, United Kingdom.