WBO Bouts: Canelo Alvarez KOs Sergey Kovalev; Ryan Garcia crushes Romero Duno

Saul Canelo Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) captured his 4th division world title in an outstanding fashion in knocking out WBO Light Heavyweight Champion Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev (34-4-1, 29 KOs) in the 11th round on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In a fight that looked to be even going into the 11th, Canelo caught Kovalev with a big left hook that badly hurt him. Canelo then followed up with a hard right hand that flattened him. The referee Russell Mora immediately stopped the contest. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:15 of round 11.

At the time of the stoppage, Canelo was ahead on the scorecards by the following scores: 96-94, 96-94, and 95-95. Boxing News 24 had it even at 95-95. Canelo was largely getting out-boxed by Kovalev, and eating a lot of jabs. Although Canelo started landing a handful of power shots in the second half of the fight, he was still getting hit a lot more by Kovalev’s jabs.

Unbeaten lightweight Ryan Garcia (19-0, 16 KOs) made quick work of #4 WBO Romero Duno (21-2, 16 KOs) in destroying him by a 1st round knockout in the co-feature bout for Duno’s WVBO NABO Belt.

Garcia, 21, caught Duno with a left hook that dropped him hard. Referee Tony Weeks then quickly stopped the fight after seeing how badly hurt Duno was. The official time of the stoppage was at 1:38 of round one. Duno was not going to be able to make it back to his feet to to continue fighting given how hurt he was.

Early on in the round, Garcia measured the shorter 5’7″ Duno by holding out his left hand and putting holding it on his head for two or three seconds. Referee Tony Weeks didn’t warn Garcia about this illegal move, as fighters aren’t supposed to be able to do that. Garcia was able to land a couple of hard right hands using this tactic.

More on https://www.boxingnews24.com/2019/11/canelo-alvarez-vs-sergey-kovalev-live-results/