Canelo Alvarez outboxes Jacobs and remains unified middleweight champion with unanimous decision

LAS VEGAS -- No controversy.

The judges had an easy job on Saturday night as Canelo Alvarez outclassed Daniel Jacobs in a unanimous decision to take three of the four middleweight world titles on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Judge Glenn Feldman scored the fight 116-112 for Alvarez, while Steve Weisfeld and Dave Moretti had it 115-113 for the champion. FightNights.com had it a little bit wider for Canelo at 117-111.

It was not Canelo's offense that necessarily won the fight, but it was his defense, his head movement, and his ring intelligence that played a significant factor.

This was not an easy fight by any means. Jacobs is a naturally big middleweight with a decent amount of power, but Alvarez used his superior footwork and bobbed and weaved his head so much to the point that the bigger man looked confused. Jacobs could not load up on his punches as he is typically accustomed to doing, which allowed Canelo to go to work for much of the first half of the fight.

“It’s just what we thought,” Alvarez said through a translator after the bout. “We knew he would be a difficult fighter, but we did things the right way, the way we were supposed to. It was just what we thought. We just did our jobs.”

Alvarez jabbed effectively, moved his head, and as soon as Jacobs wanted to respond, his opponent was not in range.

Alvarez (52-1, 2, 35 KO's), 28, of Mexico, who is also the lineal champion, only needs one more piece of the pie to become the undisputed champion. In order to do that, he must fight and defeat WBO titlist Demetrius Andrade, who was ringside, along with ex-foe Gennadiy Golovkin, who also attended the fight. Canelo said he is opening to fighting either of them.

“I’m looking for the biggest challenge; that’s all I want,” Alvarez said.” I’m looking for the biggest challenge. If people want another fight [with Golovkin], we’ll do it again, and I’ll beat him again.”

Jacobs (35-3, 29 KO's), 32, of Brooklyn, who held the IBF title after he outpointed Sergiy Derevyanchenko last fall, struggled for much of the fight but started to let his hands go in the second half. Although he thought he won the bout, Jacobs admitted that it was Canelo's speed that set him back.

Jacobs landed a thunderous left hook in the ninth round, his best punch of the fight, but Alvarez never budged.

“It took me a couple of rounds to get my wits about me and figure out his rhythm,” Jacobs said.

Against a popular and seasoned veteran like Alvarez, Jacobs knew that he could not let off the gas pedal, especially in close rounds. He fought well enough in the second half of the fight to get enough people thinking that the fight was tight. But in reality, it ]was not close at all, and Canelo put on a masterful performance against a really tough, rugged fighter, another one in a sensational career that will surely place him in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.