With a devastating blow to the chin in the sixth round, Middleweight world champion Tapatio boxer Saul “Canelo” Alvarez knocked out British challenger Amir Khan May 7.
Referee Kenny Bayless didn’t bother counting as Khan collapsed to the floor in front of a capacity 20,000 crowd of mostly Mexicans at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Alvarez looked concerned as he kneeled alongside the prostrate Khan, who was quickly attended to by medics.
The British fighter was whisked to a local hospital for a check but was soon discharged and later tweeted to tell his fans that he was not hurt.
Khan, 29, showed plenty of skill and speed to outbox Alvarez in the first four rounds but, as many pundits had predicted, the Mexican landed one monster punch to bring the fight to a rapid conclusion.
“I knew he was going to make it complicated at the beginning because this kind of fighter is always difficult. But I have the experience to adjust and I did,” said Alvarez, four years younger than his rival. “Many people focus on my power and talk about my power, but I have many more qualities in the ring. I like to surprise everyone.”
With the victory, Alvarez took his career stats to 47-1-1 – his only loss coming to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013.
The successful defense of his WBC middleweight crown sets up Alvarez with a potential fight with the equally hard-hitting Gennady Glolovkin of Kazakhstan – a money-spinning match-up the entire boxing world will be eager to see.
Glolovkin was ringside in Las Vegas and Alvarez invited him into the ring after his win. The Tapatio, frequently accused of shying away from this dangerous opponent, put on a show of bravado, issuing Glolovkin a direct challenge. “ I’m not afraid of anyone and if I could I’d put the gloves back on and fight you right now.”
September seems a likely date for the highly marketable contest, knowledgeable boxing insiders suggest.
If Alvarez agrees to fight Glolovkin at the middleweight limit of 160 pounds – against Khan he competed at a catchweight of 155 pounds for the fifth straight fight – and somehow manages to beat him, the Guadalajara native would be putting himself on course for the kind of celebrity reserved for Mexican boxers of the stature of Julio Cesar Chavez.
As Alvarez returned home to Guadalajara this week, the buzz on the boxing grapevine suggested that a Canelo-Glolovkin fight could be in the cards for Saturday, September 17 – a day after the Mexican Independence celebration.