Rocky Fielding was stopped inside three rounds against Saul Alvarez.
The former British and Commonwealth super-middleweight champion was dropped four times by the Mexican at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
Fielding, 31, put his WBA ‘regular’ title at stake against the 28-year-old WBA Super, WBC and IBO world middleweight champion in New York and did as much as he could against the superstar.
The challenger was far superior in terms of technical ability and levels in the fight, but the Stockbridge Village man, trained by Jamie Moore and Nigel Travis, was far from disgraced as he came up short against ‘Canelo’, whose only defeat in a 13-year professional career came at the hands of Floyd Mayweather back in 2013.
The end of the fight came at two minutes and 38 seconds of round three, with the referee Ricky Gonzalez having seen more than enough.
‘Canelo’ is now one of a select group of Mexican fighters to have won world championships in three difference weight classes, having clinched global honours at super-welterweight, middleweight after beating Gennady Golovkin back in September and now the 168-pound division.
The win over the brave Fielding begins Alvarez’s $365million DAZN deal.
A total of 35 of the 73 punches Álvarez landed were to the body in what was an utterly devastating performance.
Fielding was dropped in the first round by a left hook to the body and although he beat the count to hear the bell, he was down again in the next round in identical fashion.
Again he recovered but Canelo was relentless and a right to the head forced Fielding to take another knee, but when he was floored again by another body shot, the official waved the fight off.
Fielding will be able to hold his head up high despite the dream being cut devastatingly short by a special fighter in the shape of Alvarez, who moves to 51-1-2 with 35 early, while Fielding was handed his second professional defeat and now holds a record of 27-2 (15 KOs).
Article by: Elliot Foster