Alvarez Knockout, Usman Defense and Kharitonov Win: Most Memorable Weekend Events in the World of Boxing and MMA

Alvarez's unique success

The main event of the weekend in the world of boxing was the confrontation between Saul Rfytkj Alvarez (Canelo) and Caleb Plant in Las Vegas.

In less than a year, the Mexican got his hands on three belts in the second middle weight (WBA Super, WBC, WBO), and on Sunday he had the opportunity to win the fourth - according to the IBF and become the undisputed world champion.

Despite the fact that the American had not suffered a single defeat before, Canelo was the clear favorite.

Few doubted that he would finish the fight ahead of schedule.

However, the favorite of the fight had to work hard to achieve what he wanted, the opponent looked decent.

In the first rounds, he competently kept his distance and repeatedly hit Alvarez with a powerful jab.

For a long time he could not adapt to the manner of Plant, although he had a slight advantage.

But the underdog only had enough strength for six rounds. Canelo, showing excellent physical readiness, only pumped up the pace and began to inflict more damage on Caleb. Now the main intrigue was whether the American would hold out to the final bell. He missed quite a bit. In the 11th round, Saul had a left side to the temple, after which the outcome of the battle was beyond doubt. Caleb managed to get up after the knockdown, but was immediately ruthlessly finished off. Thus, the Mexican has issued the 39th knockout of his career. However, even without him, he was confidently leading on the judges' cards by the time of stopping - 98:92, 97:93, 96:94.

Thanks to this victory, Alvarez went down in history.

He became the sixth boxer to collect all four belts in one division after Bernard Hopkins, Jermain Taylor, Terence Crawford, Alexander Usyk and Josh Taylor and was the first to do so in super middleweight division.

By the way, the Ukrainian promptly congratulated his colleague on the achievement.

Alvarez himself dedicated the victory to Mexico and paid tribute to his opponent.  

“He's a great fighter with a lot of good skills.

Caleb wanted to continue to fight with me, wanted to continue the meeting.

He has nothing to be ashamed of, today we had an exciting fight, ”the athlete said immediately after the fight.

It is very curious who the Mexican will meet in the near future, having united all the belts.

Two Russians have already announced their desire to fight him: Sergey Kovalev and Dmitry Bivol, represented by their manager Vadim Kornilov.

“Sooner or later, everything will come to the point that Canelo will try to collect light heavyweight titles.

And this battle must take place.

Don't get hung up on anything.

We are also looking towards unification and are discussing it next year, "- quotes the words of Kornilov" Match TV ".

Alvarez himself stressed that he is not against the trilogy with Gennady Golovkin, if he agrees to move to his weight category.

But most of all, boxing fans were surprised by the recognition of the UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman about his readiness to face Saul.

However, the president of the leading MMA promotion of the planet, Dana White, denied this information.

He also told how he bet $ 100 thousand on the early victory of the absolute world champion over Plant.

Later, the functionary posted a check on Instagram, which shows that his winnings amounted to approximately $ 41 thousand.

Gaethje's Bloody Victory

Meanwhile, Usman himself on Saturday once again defended his title.

At UFC 268, he faced Colby Covington for the second time in his career.

Their previous fight took place in December 2019 and ended with a difficult victory for Kamaru in the final round.

The rivals fueled interest in the new confrontation with all their might.

This was done especially diligently by the applicant, who did not hesitate to hit on sore spots.

So, at a press conference, he recalled the opponent's father, who is currently in prison, calling him a "criminal".

The Nigerian Nightmare in response remained cool, but in the battle of views he could not restrain himself and almost got along with his compatriot in hand-to-hand combat.

As a result, the irreconcilable competitors gave a rather vivid duel.

Contrary to forecasts, Covington did not manage to frequent the takedowns.

The champion confidently controlled the passes to the legs.

But both boldly acted in a stance and repeatedly entered into a spectacular exchange.

At the end of the second round, the challenger was completely knocked down after a powerful left-hand shot.

The Nigerian nightmare immediately tried to finish off Chaos, but the latter was saved by the gong.

In the final rounds, Covington, realizing that he was inferior in points, stepped up and managed to create serious difficulties for Usman.

To Kamaru's credit, he did not run away from his opponent and tried to respond with dignity.

In general, the fight turned out to be approximately equal, but the judges still unanimously gave the victory to the champion - 48:47, 48:47, 49:46.

The Nigerian Nightmare had its fifth title defense in the UFC, and also won 15 consecutive victories in the promotion.

Before Anderson Silva's record, he has only one successful fight.

In women, Rose Namajunas defended the minimum weight belt.

In a rematch, she defeated Zhang Weili again.

However, this time the confrontation lasted all five rounds.

For the athlete representing the United States, this victory was the ninth in the division.

However, the brightest performance of the evening was given by Michael Chandler and Justin Gaethje.

For both, this fight was extremely important.

The first risked falling out of the number of contenders for the title in the event of another defeat.

The second entered the cage for the first time after the failure in the confrontation with Khabib Nurmagomedov last year.

The athletes did not disappoint expectations and staged a real bloody battle.

Indicative statistics: in total they delivered 451 hits, 237 of which were accurate.

I came up with 147.

In the first round, Chandler looked preferable, who tried to finish the fight ahead of schedule and even shook his opponent once.

But the goal was not achieved, and the 35-year-old athlete gradually began to leave his strength.

Gaethje immediately took advantage of this and seized the initiative.

He competently acted tactically and, unlike his opponent, did not succumb to emotions, but calculatedly improved the statistics on accurate hits.

In the second three minutes, the ex-Bellator champion even found himself knocked down after a powerful uppercut from his compatriot, but escaped in the fight.

Thus, the fate of this confrontation was decided by the judges.

They expectedly took the side of the former rival Nurmagomedov.

However, the victory came at a high price.

After the battle, Highlight and his compatriot were hospitalized.

But the second-ranked UFC lightweight athlete has increased his chances of getting a title fight.

Also, as a reward, the fighters received $ 50 thousand for the best fight of the evening.

The Russians were not represented at this tournament, but Nassurdin Imavov, flying the flag of France, entered the cage.

The 25-year-old athlete met with Armenian American Edmen Shahbazyan and won a beautiful victory.

In the second round, the Russian sniper scored his opponent with his elbows.

The referee had to stop the confrontation ahead of schedule.

Frightening knockout from Shtyrkov

There were also plenty of interesting events at the weekend in domestic promotions.

So, in Moscow, the ACA 131 tournament took place, the program of which included two title fights at once in the featherweight and lightweight division.

In both cases, the reigning champions kept the belts.

Magomedrasul Khasbulaev at the end of the third round broke the resistance of his compatriot Ramazan Kishev and won by technical knockout.

And Abdul-Aziz Abdulvahabov was marked by the third successful defense.

In a duel with Hakran Diaz, he had to spend all five rounds in the "cage".

The judges, albeit by a separate decision, still sided with the Russian.

The meeting of the famous Russian fighter Ivan Shtyrkov and Artur Astakhov aroused no less interest.

The fact that both athletes represent Yekaterinburg added special adherence to her.

As a result, there was no real competition.

The Ural Hulk had a noticeable advantage and achieved his goal at the end of the first five minutes.

After missed the most powerful right side, Astakhov tried to get up, but was immediately finished off.

“There are a lot of emotions now.

I am ready for any challenge.

The league knows I have never given up opponents and I am ready if the ACA considers me a worthy challenger.

I always give myself and give all my best for 100,000% - for me it is more than sport, more than money - it is a responsibility, ”said Shtyrkov.

And in Dubai, the next fight within the framework of the PaRus FC promotion was held by the domestic MMA veteran Sergey Kharitonov, the current champion of the organization.

This time he was opposed by 41-year-old Fabio Maldonado.

The eminent Brazilian has a fight with Stipe Miocic, Fedor Emelianenko and Idi Prochazka.

And even though he lost to all of them, the arrival of the former AMC Fight Nights Global champion in the UAE nevertheless aroused interest.

As a result, the meeting was remembered only as another scandal involving a Russian.

Older athletes spent less than three minutes in the cage.

Kharitonov had a slight advantage, but the athletes did not inflict serious damage on each other.

However, closer to the end of the first round, Sergey had a good combination.

The Latin American was pinned to the net, and this was enough to fix a technical knockout.

The judge's decision caused outrage among everyone.

Maldonado tried to show with gestures that he was ready to continue, and did not look really shocked.

The disgruntled winner wondered why the referee issued such a verdict.

Even the fans in the hall whistled.

Nevertheless, the fight ended there, and the native of the Arkhangelsk region retained his belt.