Saul "Canelo" Alvarez vs. Luciano Cuello RBR; Compare to Chavez Jr. vs. Cuello (vid)

Round 2

They take turns stepping forward and jabbing in rhythm. Alvarez opens up and drops Cuello again with a quick flash of handspeed, planting a hook on Cuello's ear. Cuello gets up and tries desperately to defend as Alvarez swarms him with hard punches, left hooks and looping rights. Cuello gets in a single hook of his own but largely has to backpedal to survive the round. Alvarez batters him against the ropes but the bell rings.

10-8 Alvarez

 

Round 3

Alvarez rams the face of Cuello with accurate jabs, then brings crushing right crosses behind them as Cuello tries to survive using footwork - abruptly changing direction every few lateral steps. Cuello steps in and braves a left hook that lands, but he quickly backs up as Alvarez goes back to landing in combination. 1-2-3 for Alvarez. Then a jab and double cross, lightning quick. Cuello is bleeding from the nose and BOTH eyes.

10-9 Alvarez

 

Round 4

Cuello is all over the place - zigging and zagging around the ring. Alvarez is still not having trouble connecting, with jabs lining up his power punches: clubbing hook, overhand right to the jowels, right hand straight down to the body. Cuello's only remaining weapon is the jab as everything else leaves him too open to fast combinations with Alvarez's superior speed and reflexes. Cuello is a bloody mess.

10-9 Alvarez

 

Round 5

Alvarez unleashes a blizzard of three punch combos as Cuello sticks to his pattern of retreating and jabbing. Alvarez then slows it down to single shots. Powerful hooks bat Cuello around, then give way to a pump-action right hand, one after the other without the blink of an eye in between. Cuello walks straight in trying to pop Alvarez with a pair of straight punches, and Alvarez snakes a hook around his arm, hitting him in the face. Cuello goes down, but apparently there was a low blow involved in that exchange. They resume, and Alvarez bashes Cuello with yet another powerful hook.

10-9 Alvarez

 

Round 6

Hooks and mace-like right hands continue to shorten the career of Cuello. Alvarez has blood splashed all over his shoulder every time he lands a reverberating hook on Cuello - it looks like a red-ink tribal tattoo. Alvarez puts Cuello on the backfoot with a hard hook to the gut, and then chases him with a 1-2 that crashes on the gloves and another hook that thuds against Cuello's armpit. It is waved off at this moment.

There would have been no bad moment to stop this by the sixth round. That wasn't the best moment, but it was total dominance. Cuello's health and livelihood were (and maybe are) in peril.