- Last weekend was a massive one for boxing and culminated in the mega fight between Miguel Cotto and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. The odds were in Alvarez's favor but most fans saw it as a toss up fight and that is basically how it played out. Cotto made an effort to box his bigger opponent while Alvarez relied on his size and power to wear down Cotto. The fight was even throughout and many rounds were very close and tough to judge. While Cotto had some nice moments it was clear that he could not really hurt Alvarez who had a massive weight advantage on fight night. When the fight ended it seemed like a close Alvarez win and while the three judges sitting ringside got the winner correct their scores were atrocious. The three judges scored the fight 119-109, 118-110, and 117-111 all for Alvarez. While Cotto lost the match he looked very good and should have no problem finding himself another big fight. As for Alvarez he has about two weeks to decide whether he will give his belt up or fight Gennady Golovkin in a fight the world really wants to see.
- While all of the hype surrounding Saturday's HBO PPV card centered around the main event the co-feature ended up stealing the show. That fight was between junior lightweight champion Takashi Miura and challenger Francisco Vargas. Vargas badly hurt Miura in the very 1st round and it looked like the champion was on the verge of being stopped. The 2nd round was much of the same and it appeared Vargas was in for an easy night. However Miura really changed the momentum in the 4th round when he dropped Vargas and had him badly hurt. A cut under Vargas' right eye didn't help things and the more powerful Miura really started to put a beating on him. However, Miura isn't a great defensive fighter and Vargas took advantage when he dropped Miura in round 9. Miura beat the count but wouldn't make it out of the round as Vargas followed up with a plethora of punches, forcing referee Tony Weeks to stop the fight.
- The rest of Saturday's PPV card was basically business as usual. Guillermo Rigondeaux took on the powerful but limited Drian Francisco and easily out boxed him to a mile wide unanimous decision win. While Rigondeaux's defense was masterful he never really opened up offensively and against a limited opponent like Francisco he probably should have. The fight prompted both Jim Lampley and Harold Lederman to proclaim that they didn't have Rigondeaux on their list of top 10 pound-for-pound fighters, a proclamation that Max Kellerman strongly disagreed with, as did Big Time Boxing who has Rigondeaux ranked as the number one fighter in the sport. The opening bout pitted Jayson Velez against Ronny Rios and they gave fans a good scrap. Velez had his moments but Rios was the better fighter and got the justified unanimous decision win.
- On Friday night boxing fans got their fix with a truTV card headlined by Gilberto Ramirez. Ramirez took on Gevorg Khatchikian and basically pitched a shutout on his way to a unanimous decision win. That win kept Ramirez's perfect record intact but questions still surround him. The biggest of those questions is whether or not he can compete against the best with his limited defense and propensity to taking clean punches. Also on that card was the powerful Saul Rodriguez who took on the tough Ivan Najera. Najera wasn't able to survive the opening round as Rodriguez dropped him twice on his way to a devastating 1st round stoppage win that really impressed fans who had never seen him before.
WEEKLY RECORD: 3-3
MONTHLY RECORD: 9-6-1
OVERALL RECORD: 603-173-21
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