Both of these main event bouts proved to be worth every penny fans shelled out for the pay per view feed.
Mayweather began the fight by establishing pinpoint accuracy with his jab in the first round. Alvarez came out cautious. Alvarez landed a nice uppercut in the first and looked like he had an honest chance to knock Floyd out if he could connect with something solid and keep swarming Mayweather.
Instead, Alvarez continued to box Mayweather. Canelo used his jab more in the second and landed a spectacular left hook to the head, but Mayweather kept on countering and stole the round with an outburst in the final seconds that included some combos landing flush.
Mayweather abandoned the shoulder roll defense briefly and stalked Alvarez in the third round with a hands up attack. Alvarez kept trying to land hard combos only to watch Mayweather continue to slide out of trouble. Mayweather picked up the pace at the end of the round.
Round four featured a low blow from Canelo that riled Mayweather up. It was a strong round for both fighters with some of the best trading exchanges of the fight. Mayweather avoided Canelo's power jab for most of the fifth round, launching counters to score points. Alvarez connected with some bombs in the sixth, but Mayweather used slick defense to stay out of the way of the worst shots. T
he frustration was all over the face of Alvarez as Mayweather goes back to working off his jab and 1-2 combos. Mayweather was holding his own, but he was also taking some damage.
Alvarez threw mostly straight shots in the seventh. He did land a looping uppercut, but Mayweather finds his perfect range in the closing minute. He kept Alvarez in the corner for a moment, but Alvarez bulled his way out. Mayweather began to establish complete control in the eighth. Canelo tried to pour it on late, but Mayweather recovered nicely.
Canelo started the ninth round with some aggressive punching, but he just can't land anything to hurt Floyd. Canelo was landing the harder shots into round 10, but nothing seemed close to knocking Floyd out. Floyd was also throwing a higher volume of accurate shots. Mayweather gave Alvarez an intimidating glare at the close of the tenth. The final two rounds featured more superior boxing by Floyd with plenty of movement and defense.
Mayweather would get the nod on two of three scorecards with the third reflecting a draw at 114-114. The judges who scored it like they actually watched it had it 116-112 and 117-111 for Mayweather.
The co-main event featured a rousing back-and-forth battle between Lucas Matthysse and Danny Garcia.
Matthysse had no answer for the tactical ability of Garcia to control the pace of the fight. Matthysse found out early that even his best punches could not rattle the proud Philadelphia native. Garcia took a page out of the Rocky IV book and showed the audience that Matthysse is "not a machine."
Though Garcia saw a point taken away for a low blow and his mouthpiece dislodged in the later rounds, he managed to stay in his best range for most of the fight. Matthysse fought in spurts while Garcia cruised through the bout in a cool, calm and relaxed pace, landing just as much as he had to and needed to in order to take home the decision.
Garcia used the whole ring and boxed impressively, not letting the knockout power of his opponent rattle him. He was the only fighter on the televised card to score a unanimous decision by scores of 114-112 twice and 115-111 once.
There was also a boxing clinic put on in the opener by Pablo Cesar Cano (27-3-1, 20 KOs), as he out-hustled Ashley Theophane (33-6-1, 10 KOs) to score a split decision win.
The second fight of the night was perhaps the closest contest with Carlos Molina (22-5-2, 6 KOs) earning a split decision win over Ishe Smith (25-6, 11 KOs) in a bout where Smith looked dominant at times while Molina looked sloppy and awkward.
Still, Molina did land the harder shots and had the more bullish approach in the fight. He earns his first world title after a long and controversial career as a contender.
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