Beijing time today (September 15), in Las Vegas, United States ended the WBC, WBA, WBO super middleweight championship match, defending champion Carneiro Alvarez achieved a reasonable victory, in the confrontation with the forced challenger Edgar Blanga, the points beat the opponent, but unfortunately the performance was unsatisfactory, was ridiculed by some media as "lack of novelty", because Alvarez faced Blanga, whose technology and experience were far inferior to his own, and could not end the fight in one go. So much so that he won the game again by points.
01
Before the fight, it was predicted that according to the difference in strength between Alvarez and Berlanga, Alvarez would have a great chance of winning by knockout, and even predicted that he would destroy his opponent within 6 rounds, but in addition to Berlanga's tenacity, Alvarez has indeed declined a lot compared to his peak.
In the first round of the fight, Alvarez took control of the situation with ease, and even hit the target with his famous back left hook just over the first minute, which obviously did not bode well for Berlanga.
In the third round, Alvarez finally seized the opportunity to push his opponent into the corner, successfully performed a feint, distracted Berlanga, and then landed a tricky left hook that knocked his opponent down instantly, causing the scene to boil.
02
At first, Alvarez took advantage of the victory and kept hitting the target, but after Berlanga withstood the pressure, he was able to launch a sharp counterattack, which curbed Alvarez's offensive rhythm to a certain extent.
In the next round, Alvarez had a very obvious advantage, frequently entering the interior to carry out attacks, Berlanga appeared very passive, but as the confrontation deepened, he gradually adapted to Alvarez's rhythm, and at the same time made full use of the height and arm length advantage, and controlled the jab on the perimeter.
In the second half of the match, the 34-year-old Alvarez's fitness began to decline, and at the same time, he couldn't hurt his opponent with heavy punches, but it was a pity that Beilanga was unable to seize the favorable opportunity to make a breakthrough due to his limited ability, and he was still suppressed by Alvarez.
03
In the last few rounds, Berlanga, who knew that it was difficult to make a difference, decided to take a desperate gamble, during which he attacked Alvarez many times, but unfortunately he was still at a disadvantage, and Alvarez showed the embarrassment of not being able to attack for a long time, because Berlanga's will quality and ability to resist hitting were too prominent, so the contest ushered in the end of the battle.
Post-match technical statistics show that Alvarez is better than Berlanga in terms of the number of strikes, hits, and hit rates, which to a certain extent reflects the strength of the two sides, of which Alvarez's heavy punch hit rate is as high as 49.1%, and Beran's heavy punch hit rate is 34.9%, and the gap is still relatively obvious.
In the end, the three judges unanimously scored 117-110, 118-109, 118-109, and decided that Alvarez won by points, and personally believed that Blanga only won 1 round in the whole game, with a score of 119-108, and Alvarez won completely.
04
Before the fight, unlike most fans and media predictions, I thought Alvarez would win by points, because Berlanga has the advantage of age and hardware, and it will not be easy for Alvarez to stop his opponent, which has proved to be the case, but in addition, a real problem is that Alvarez's decline has become a fact, and aside from the disadvantage caused by fighting bigger fighters at 168 pounds, Alvarez's most significant change is that his fitness, speed, and reflexes have declined, and his continuous offensive ability has been greatly reduced. It's hard to see Alvarez's stormy combinations like a few years ago, and instead they're more of a game of experience and skill, and it's hard to wreak down at 168 pounds.
According to Alvarez's pre-match information, he plans to move up to 175 pounds next May to rematch Dmitry Bivol, leaving aside the question of whether Bivol can beat Artur Beterbiev, if Alvarez shares the stage with Bivol again, based on his performance in today's fight with Blanga, the rematch will be worse than the first.