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LAS VEGAS –Welcome back, Canelo Alvarez.

A perceived slide was interrupted, if not halted altogether, Saturday night with Canelo’s thorough  victory over Jermell Charlo in front of a Showtime pay-per-view audience and a roaring crowd at T-Mobile Arena.

Aside from a knockout, Canelo did all of it. He didn’t  tire in the long run. He reasserted his documented power, forcing Charlo to take a knee with an enormous right hand within the seventh. He had Charlo and his doubters in retreat throughout 12 rounds.

For months, the argument was that Canelo’s 18-year profession within the prize-fighting ring was over. It was as if any person had jammed Canelo’s skillset right into a barrel and shipped it to the dump. But there have been signs throughout the last week that Canelo had redefined himself, his body and his profession.

“No person goes to beat this Canelo,” he said .

The one-sided scores — 118-109, 119-108, 118-109 — were only one measure of how dominant Canelo (60-2-2, 39 KOs) was in his fight to stop the slide. Charlo (35-2-1, 15 KOs) simply had no probability.

“I don’t make excuses for myself,” Charlos said. “it’s what’s is.”

One query will linger. Charlo, an undisputed champion at junior-middleweight, was fighting for the primary at super-middle, a division Canelo has long ruled.

Charlo jumped two weight classes. He was feeling super-middleweight power for the primary time. The query will likely be there until Canelo faces a real super-middleweight. That is likely to be David Benavidez, the unbeaten super-middleweight from Phoenix.

First, Benavidez has to beat Demetrius Andrade. 15 Rounds confirmed with promoter Tom Brown that Benavidez will fight Andrade on November 25 in San Antonio. The World Boxing Council aso is planning to deal with Canelo’s next mandatory defense at its convention in November in Uzbekistan, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman told 15 Rounds. The Benavidez-Andrade winner might get a compulsory shot at Canelo. 

But nothing is ever certain. Welterweight champion Terence Crawford, the undisputed pound-for-pound No. 1 after his blowout of Errol Spence, has talked about facing Canelo at a catchweight. Crawford was in the group Saturday.

“We are able to;t rule on what we don;t know,” Sulaiman said. “We are able to only take care of the facts.”

For now, here’s one:

Canelo is back.

Lubin wins unanimous decision for a fight that only earns boos

A firefight was the promise. But there was no fire. Not much of a fight, either. As an alternative there have been boos.

A gathering crowd for the Canelo Alvarez-Jermell Charlo fight Saturday night was a storm of discontent at a bout that had been projected to be a big junior-middleweight match.  

However the Erickson Lubin-Jesus Ramos bout was a dud in the ultimate Showtime pay-per-view bout before Canelo-Charlo at T-Mobile Arena.

For 12 rounds, Ramos (20-1, 16 KOs) moved forward, chasing a backpedaling Lubin (26-2, 18 KOs). If it weren’t for ropes that kept him within the ring, Ramos would have been chasing Lubin down the Vegas Strip. Lubin wouldn’t engage.

But he did enough backpedaling to persuade the judges. All three scored it in his favor. It was 115-113, 116-112 and 117-111. All for Lubin. The choice was unanimous. So was the group’s discontent.

Lubin looked surprised when the scores were announced.  Ramos, a 22-year-old Arizona fighter from Casa Grande, looked
stunned. After Lubin  stopped backpedaling enough to be interviewed within the ring, his answers couldn’t be heard above the roar of boos.

“I’m one among the highest dogs,” he said after a dog fight.

Meanwhile, Ramos was left to take care of one among boxing’s lessons. Lousy decisions are like scars. Everybody has one.

“I’ll move on and take care of this loss,” said the young fighter who got here into the ring  amid expectations that he had a probability to be one among boxing’s next great champions.

All he has now could be a loss. And perhaps a lesson. 

Barrios scores decision over a bloodied Ugas

Ultimately, it belonged to Mario Barrios, who scored a call — unanimous and contentious — over Yordenis Ugas Saturday night on the Showtime pay-per-view telecast of the cardboard featuring Canelo Alvarez-versus-Jermell Charlo at T-Mobile Arena

Barrios (28-3, 18 KOS), a San Antonio welterweight, scored two knockdowns of Ugas (27-6, 12 KOs), a Cuban best known for ending Manny Pacquiao’s legendary profession.

A left jab put Ugas down within the second. He was down again within the twelfth. Twice, the ringside doctor checked out his bloodied eyes. Every time, the fight was allowed to proceed. But there was never much of a probability that Ugas could win. By  A lucky punch? Possibly.

But Barrios had an excessive amount of energy and more precision in his punches. Ugas was just hanging on for an end that will go against him. It did.  He lost on all three cards, 118-107, 117-108, 118-107..

Elijah Garcia delivers TKO victory in his “hardest” fight

There have been questions at first. Then, there have been lessons, sharply delivered and still there to learn. Ultimately, there was some perfection.

For emerging middleweight Elijah Garcia, still a student of the sport, it was a fight filled with nearly all the things. From aspirations to possibilities, it was all there.

 Above all, Garcia (16-0, 13 KOs) stayed unbeaten and heading in the right direction to perform an ambitious goal with an eighth-round TKO of Armando Resenediz Saturday in the primary Showtime pay-per-view bout on the cardboard featuring Canelo Alvarez-Jermell Charlo Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.

“It was really a tough fight,” said Garcia, a 20-year-old Arizona fighter who desires to be a 21-year-old middleweight champion. “It was my hardest, yeah 100%.”

They’ll get tougher. Rather a lot tougher. There’s no other solution to get to that middleweight title. But he’s still there, perhaps on the fast track, mostly due to what he continued to prove. His power is deadly and he sustains it. Without it, he is likely to be dealing together with his first defeat.

Nevertheless it was alway there and at all times accurate enough  to stagger, stun after which wear out the gritty Resendiz (14-2, 10 KOs). 

The Phoenix born left-hander, who continues to wear 602 — the PHX area code — stitched onto the belt buckle of his trunks — set the tone within the opening round, buckling Resendiz on the knees with an enormous left hand.

But Resendiz, stubborn and brave, wouldn’t go away. For the subsequent few rounds, Resendiz tirelessly moved forward and relentlessly threw straight-handed punches. They landed, time and again. The evidence was within the reddening skin around Garcia’s eyes. Garcia was dropping his hands, especially his left.  Sometimes, it was down at his hip. It was dangerous against Resendiz. Against a middleweight champion, it may very well be deadly. A lesson still to be learned.

For now, Garcia’s power prevails. Inside Resendiz’ busy style, there was no counter for it . There was only an inevitable end and It got here at about two minutes of the eighth round, delivered by a sequence of punches that were a thing of beauty. Garcia put together three punches, almost seamlessly. First, Gracia landed a left to Resendiz’s body. Then, he followed with a right to the body. Then, there was the of completion, a right to the top. It was all done with a certain rhythm that resulted in Resendiz crashing to the canvas.

About 30 seconds later, referee Tony Weeks saw a dazed and defenseless Resendiz. Correctly, Weeks ended it at 2:33 of the eighth round of a fight that included a press release, punctuated by three perfectly delivered punches that summed up Garcia’s potential.   

Frank Sanchez wins fourth-round stoppage

Frank Sanchez has greater than just heavyweight power. He’s a fast thinker.

He needed to be against Scott Alexander Saturday night on the Caneo Alvarez-Jermell Charlo card Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.

Alexander (17-6-2, 9 KOs) of Los Angeles, quicky showed that he was greater than just one other opponent. He threw a head-rocking right hand, a wake-up call in the primary round 

Sanchez’ response was immediate. The merging contender from Cuba countered with his own right, staggering Alexander with a blow that delivered a preview of what was to return. 

Within the second round, Sanchez (23-0 16 KOs) knocked down Alexander. Within the fourth, he did it again. But this one finished Alexander, who was slow to rise up and wobbly when he did, a loser by TKO late within the fourth

Gausha wins majority decision

Terrell Gausha took one other step  toward turning his loss to Tim Tszyu right into a fading memory.

He beat KeAndrae Leatherwood.

Nevertheless it wasn’t easy.

Gausha (24-3-1, 12 KOs) a middleweight from Cleveland, found himself caught up in a slow-paced bout with an ungainly Leatherwood (39-1, 13 KOs), of Tuscaloosa AL, in an eight-round middleweight bout on the cardboard featuring Canelo Alvarez-Jermell Charlo.

A cautious Leatherwood was content to carry , but never engage Gausha. That made the fight hard to attain.

Gausha, an Olympian who lost a unanimous decision to Tszyu in March 2022, won a majority decision. He was a 78-74 winner on two cards. The third judge scored it a draw.

Oleksandr Gvozdyk back with quick KO

Former light-heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk says he’s ready for Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev.

He won’t get an argument from Isaac Rodrigues.

In his third comeback fight this 12 months, Gvozdyk (20-1, 15 KOs) continued to work on restoring his world-class skills with crushing second round knockout of Rodrigues (28-5, 22 KOs) within the the third fight on the Canelo-Charlo undercard, Gvozdyk, a Ukrainian, is working his way back after he retired following a punishing loss to Beterbiev in October 2019 in Philadelphia.

Rodrigues’ 22 stoppages suggested that he might be dangerous. He wasn’t. Midway through the second, Gvozdyk, who calls himself “The Nail”, hammered him with a few precise punches. Rodrigues, of Brazil, needed to be helped out of the ring. Middleweights fight to forgettable draw

It was a draw. Dull,too

A crowd might been bored by a forgettable middleweight bout between Abilkhan Amankul (4-0-1, 4 KOs), of Kazakhstan, and Joeshen James (7-0-2, 4 KOs) , of Sacramento, within the second bout on the Canelo-Charlo card. But there was no one at T-Mobile to bore.

One card favored Amankul, 39-37. On the opposite two, it  was, yawn 38-38.

First Bell: Canelo-Charlo card opens with crushing KO

Call it an influence lunch.

Gabriel Valenzuela brought all the facility, He opened the show about six hours before the Canelo Alvarez-Jermell Charlo essential event Saturday. He dropped Yeis Gabriel Solano thrice. No person noticed.That’s because no one was there for the matinee opener to a 12 fight card at T-Mobile Arena.

It was over when Valenzuela (27-3-1, 17 KOs), of Mexico, sent Solano (15-3, 10 KOs), of Colombia, crashing onto the canvas, a knockout victim at 2:33 of the sixth round. An unconscious Solano remained on the canvas, surrounded by echoes, for several seconds until hs cornermen helped up and out of the ring.

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