Canelo Alvarez comfortably retained his Super Middleweight world titles with a third round stoppage of Avni Yildirim in Miami on Saturday Photo Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom
Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez did exactly as expected, as he easily defended his WBC, WBA ‘Super’ and Ring Magazine Super Middleweight titles at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, forcing mandatory challenger, Avni Yildirim, to retire from battle after three one-sided rounds.
Canelo (55-1-2, 37 KOs) was last seen as recently as December 2020, dominating Callum Smith to reign supreme at the weight, while Yildirim (21-3, 12 KOs) was fortuitous to be in his lofty position having not fought in over two years, since defeat to Anthony Dirrell in a challenge for the WBC belt. A mismatch was expected, and that’s exactly what happened.