Alvarez entered the ring as the overwhelming favorite over the unbeaten Briton and started as the aggressor in the opening round but had to slowdown a bit in the second round as he appeared to have hurt his right hand.
“I started controlling him, but in the second round I hurt my (right) hand and I had to use my left more often,” Alvarez said. “He was very strong in the beginning and I had to put the body work in. I felt he would dwindle,” he added.
It was more of a give and take scenario but Alvarez was piling up and winning on points round by round until the seventh round when the Mexican star scored a knockdown with two successive right hooks.
After the seventh round knock down, it was clear that Smith was hurt and out for the taking by the raging Alvarez who scored another knockdown in the eighth round. Smith was up and survived the round but Alvarez was ready to finish him in the ninth round after forcing him to lean on the rope where Alvarez punish him with body shots.
The end came late in the round as Alvarez caught him with a hard left on the body, sending him reeling in pain to the canvas where he was counted out by the referee.
“I told you I was going to give you a great fight and bring you the championship, and here it is,” Alvarez told the adoring crowd. “I started controlling him, but in the second round I hurt my hand. I hurt my right hand, so I had to use my left more often. I only used sparingly my right hand, but that’s what happened.”
For his part, Smith said his timing was off and it would have been better if he waited a little bit more to test Alvarez’ skill and power.
“He was too good and skillful today, and I was too slow,” said Smith, 28. “I did hit him with some jabs and right hands, but to be more competitive I needed better timing, and my timing was off. I think maybe if I waited a little longer and gotten more experience I would have been able to fight a guy like that better. I am very disappointed.” he added.
It was Alvarez 48th win and a lone fight short of Floyd Mayweather’s career high of 49 wins. With his win over Smith, Alvarez has improved his record to 48-1-1, 38 knockouts while Smith dropped to 25-1-1,13 KOs.
