Canelo Alvarez reclaimed the undisputed super middleweight championship for a second time with a wide unanimous decision over William Scull at the ANB Arena in Riyadh, though the Mexican star had little good to say about the fight itself once it was over.
All three judges sided emphatically with Alvarez, scoring it 119-109, 116-112 and 115-113, as Scull’s night was defined more by survival than by any real attempt to win rounds. It was the first professional defeat of Scull’s career, while Alvarez moved to 63-2-2 and set up the fight the entire card had really been building towards.
Photo: IMAGO
Alvarez didn’t pretend the fight had been anything other than a chore. “For me, it’s a boring fight,” he said afterwards. “[Scull was] not trying to win, just trying to survive. I hate these kinds of fights.” Scull’s cautious, defensive approach gave Alvarez little to work with beyond his usual patient body work and occasional counters, and the pace rarely rose above a stalking, low-output affair.
The real fight is still to come
None of that dampened Alvarez’s enthusiasm for what’s next. With Terence Crawford having already made clear his intention to move up and challenge for undisputed status, both men used the post-fight platform to look ahead. “Crawford is one of the best out there, I like to share the ring with that kind of a fighter. It’s my pleasure,” Alvarez said. Crawford, watching on, was characteristically blunt about his own plans: “In September, I’ll show the world what greatness looks like.”
A tune-up that did its job
Whatever the fight lacked as entertainment, it achieved exactly what it needed to for Alvarez’s side of the ledger: another successful defence, undisputed status retained, and the biggest fight left in the division now locked in for Las Vegas. For Scull, a first loss on the biggest stage of his career, against the sport’s biggest domestic draw, was always going to be a hard night regardless of the scorecards.
