Classy Alvarez dominates and stops brave Rhodes

Mexico’s WBC light-middleweight champion Saul Alvarez dominated, outclassed and eventually stopped tough Yorkshireman Ryan Rhodes at 48 seconds of the twelfth and final round of their title contest at Arena VFG in Guadalajara last night.

The 20 year-old put in a performance which belied his tender years and other than the odd spell, controlled the bout throughout. I gave Rhodes the ninth round, in which Alvarez clearly took a breather, as well as a share of the third and the sixth.

Almost every time Alvarez chose to open up he was impressively quick, accurate and seemed deceptively heavy handed. Not only that, but he displayed a good variety of punches and hurt the 34 year-old both to the body and head.

The writing was on the wall for the Sheffielder in the fourth when a right hook behind the ear put him down, although Rhodes displayed no long term effects.

A novice fight fan might have been asking why Rhodes didn’t come out swinging, especially when he knew he was losing clearly. A wiser head will have realised quite early in the fight that Alvarez was simply not allowing his challenger to ‘get off’ and any wild aggression would have been severly punished.

One also got the sense that the young champion could turn up the heat any time he chose. The time he chose was at the start of the twelfth with a dazzling array of accurate power punches. Rhodes continued to display the toughness that had seen him through to that stage, but was clearly suffering and the referee stepped in after a right hook connected, just before Rhodes’ trainer David Coldwell threw in the towel.

Ryan Rhodes is a seasoned, classy and tough competitor, one of Britain’s best boxers. Alvarez, a pro since the age of 15, made him look ordinary.

That’s a big compliment and an indicator of a great future.