Alvarez outpoints Jacobs to unify middleweight world titles

LAS VEGAS, Nevada: Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez unified boxing’s 160-pound division on Saturday, earning a unanimous decision over Daniel Jacobs in a fight that pitted two of the world’s top middleweights with three world titles on the line.

Alvarez kept his World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association titles and seized Jacobs’ International Boxing Federation belt in a bout that marked the Mexican’s return to the middleweight division.

Alvarez said his hard work in the gym paid off and there was very little Jacobs did that came as a surprise. “It is just what we thought it would be,” said Alvarez, who became the first Mexican champ to hold three major titles in a single division. “We did our job. We showed a lot of diversity, in terms of punches and combinations. It was a beautiful fight.”

Alvarez won on all three judges’ scorecards, with two having it 115-113 and the other 116-112.This was Alvarez’s first fight of 2019 but the second fight of his five-year 11-fight $365 million deal with the boxing streaming service DAZN.

Alvarez dominated the early rounds, landing power jabs and slipping head shots by Jacobs in a manner that would have made Floyd Mayweather proud. Asked if he would consider a third fight against Golovkin, Alvarez said: “For me we are done. But if people want another fight we will do it again and I’ll beat him again.”