Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez Stops Josesito Lopez In The Fifth

Canelo Alvarez's Next Fight: Sights Set On Miguel Cotto, Floyd Mayweather

Saul "Canelo" Alvarez had absolutely no problems last night when he took on Josesito Lopez. Alvarez was too big and far too strong for Lopez, a man who was coming up two weight classes for the fight.

They certainly had tried to make fights against bigger opponents who were considered more dangerous, having fights fall through with James Kirkland (shoulder injury), Paul Williams (paralyzed in motorcycle accident) and Victor Ortiz (defeated by Lopez).

As we covered earlier in the week, Miguel Cotto was attending last night's fight, hoping for a May 4 showdown with the Mexican superstar.

And, following the victory, Cotto's name was brought up, but so was another, even bigger, superstar. "I had a big responsibility fighting for my fans around the world this weekend and I think I made them happy. I want the big fights now -- Cotto and Mayweather."

Either of those fights would likely be the biggest of 2013.

For more updates on this fight, continue to follow us here at SB Nation and check out our boxing blog Bad Left Hook.

Canelo Vs. Lopez Result: Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez Stops Josesito Lopez In Fifth

Saul "Canelo" Alvarez was simply too much for Josesito Lopez tonight in their Showtime Championship Boxing clash from Las Vegas.

Much of the talk leading up to the fight was that Lopez, most at home at 140 pounds, was simply in over his head fighting the big 154 pound Canelo. And that just appeared to be the case throughout the time the two men fought tonight. Canelo repeatedly dropped Lopez, mostly through thunderous body shots, but he mixed in big flurries to the head as well.

In the fifth round, Canelo opened up with a huge flurry that had Lopez against the ropes and referee Joe Cortez knew he had no choice but to stop the fight and protect Lopez.

It's hard to really judge the performance from either man. Lopez showed a warrior's heart, never looking for a way out despite being badly outgunned and Canelo...well...he was fighting a man who was simply too small.

But there is certainly something to be said for "doing what you're supposed to do to the man in front of you" and that's what we saw Canelo do tonight.

Canelo Vs. Lopez Live Results: Round 4

Again, in the fourth round, Josesito Lopez was put on the mat by Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. The valiant effort of Lopez is being overshadowed by the size and power of Canelo.

A low blow early in the round gave Lopez a chance to recover, but after only taking 45 seconds, he was tagged by Alvarez and dropped. He was able to get up, but this is getting out of hand and hard to watch.

Round Score: 10-8 Canelo

You can read our Saul "Canelo" Alvarez vs. Josesito Lopez fight preview here, our coverage of the odds here and our full story stream covering the event here.

For more updates on this fight, continue to follow us here at SB Nation and check out ourboxing blog Bad Left Hook.

Canelo Vs. Lopez Live Results: Round 3

A big shot by Saul "Canelo" Alvarez to Josesito Lopez's boy in the early part of the third round dropped Lopez for the second time in the fight. Lopez was able to get up and try to fire back with some good shots of his own, but his power can't move Canelo, while Canelo's power is hurting Lopez constantly.

Lopez tries to get things done, but Canelo is landing at a huge percentage and there's nowhere for Lopez to go.

Round Score: 10-8 Canelo
Fight Score: 30-26 Canelo

You can read our Saul "Canelo" Alvarez vs. Josesito Lopez fight preview here, our coverage of the odds here and our full story stream covering the event here.

For more updates on this fight, continue to follow us here at SB Nation and check out ourboxing blog Bad Left Hook.

Canelo Vs. Lopez Live Results: Round 2

Saul "Canelo" Alvarez just looks too big and too strong for Josesito Lopez in the second round of their Showtime Championship Boxing main event. The two men both landed an equal number of punches in the second round, but Canelo was able to push Lopez around, make him bleed from the mouth and then knocked him down with a thudding body shot.

Lopez is a warrior, but Canelo is a destroyer and he's going to blitz and break down Lopez unless there is some sort of miracle. Alvarez is just too big here.

Round Score: 10-8 Canelo Alvarez
Fight Score: 20-17 Canelo Alvarez

You can read our Saul "Canelo" Alvarez vs. Josesito Lopez fight preview here, our coverage of the odds here and our full story stream covering the event here.

For more updates on this fight, continue to follow us here at SB Nation and check out ourboxing blog Bad Left Hook.

Canelo Vs. Lopez Live Results: Round 1

Alvarez came out with a big right hand and he is planting his feet hard when letting his power punches go. Lopez is looking active, trying to find space to choose between letting his hands go but not standing too still as to let Canelo get any huge shots in here early.

Alvarez really finding success this round with the big left hand and the body shots. Lopez needs to figure out an answer here quickly before things get out of reach because Canelo is looking sharp and, despite having similar weights, Canelo is the much bigger fighter.

Round Score: 10-9 Canelo
Fight Score: 10-9 Canelo

You can read our Saul "Canelo" Alvarez vs. Josesito Lopez fight preview here, our coverage of the odds here and our full story stream covering the event here.

For more updates on this fight, continue to follow us here at SB Nation and check out ourboxing blog Bad Left Hook.

Canelo Vs. Lopez Results: Ponce De Leon Wins Technical Decision

Daniel Ponce De Leon was able to win a close technical decision over Jhonny Gonzalez on the undercard of the Saul "Canelo" Alvarez vs. Josesito Lopez Showtime Championship Boxing event.

The fight saw some good action, but unfortunately was marred by headbutts, one of which would cause the fight to be waived off during the eighth round.

Here's how the stoppage was described at Bad Left Hook:

Daniel was able to continue fighting without issue from the cut and, in round six, he was able to score with a hard left hand counter and a follow-up flurry that sent Gonzalez through the ropes. Gonzalez was able to get up and survive the round but the knockdown seemed to motivate Ponce De Leon.

As the action was building again in the eighth round, Ponce De Leon again led with his head, this time clashing to the eye area of Gonzalez. The headbutt opened a very nasty cut just above Gonzalez's eye and the doctor waived off the fight.

The judges rendered a technical decision, unanimously giving Daniel Ponce De Leon the victory on scores of 77-74, 79-72, 79-72.

For more updates on this fight, continue to follow us here at SB Nation and check out our boxing blog Bad Left Hook.

Canelo Vs. Lopez Results: Maidana Stops Soto Karass In Round Eight

In the second bout of the Saul "Canelo" Alvarez vs. Josesito Lopez undercard, Marcos Maidana scored a thrilling knockout win over Jesus Soto Karass in the eighth round.

The fight was a little bit chippy at times but always exciting as both men fired power shots from bell to bell. Both men lost a point for not obeying the referee in round four, Maidana lost another point in round seven for a low blow, but when they weren't fouling, they were punching.

Soto Karass had no real interest in backing down because of Maidana's power punches throughout the fight, continually coming forward and throwing over 100 punches per round. He had started to wear down Maidana with a body attack around the halfway point of the fight, but Maidana scored a knockdown late in the seventh and then poured it on with a big attack in the eighth round that forced referee Kenny Bayless to step in and stop the bout.

For more updates on this fight, continue to follow us here at SB Nation and check out our boxing blog Bad Left Hook.

Canelo Vs. Lopez Results: Leo Santa Cruz Stops Eric Morel In 5

The first fight of the Showtime main card for the Saul "Canelo" Alvarez vs. Josesito Lopez card saw long time veteran of the sport, Eric Morel, take on Leo Santa Cruz for the IBF bantamweight championship. The two men came out and basically looked content to stand at phone booth distance and throw power shots.

What turned the tide of the fight away from a pretty even slugfest to one that Santa Cruz dominated was Santa Cruz's dedication to the body attack. The attack to the body broke down Morel and slowed his attack to the point where Santa Cruz was completely in control.

As Morel slowed, Santa Cruz upped his attack. In the fifth round he was visibly hurting Morel with flurries to the head. As Morel sat in his corner after the round his corner said "you're taking too much, stop the fight." It was a humane decision by a corner that knew their man couldn't win the fight but wasn't going to stop trying on his own.

For more updates on this fight, continue to follow us here at SB Nation and check out our boxing blog Bad Left Hook.

Canelo Vs. Lopez: Win Or Lose, Lopez Needs Big Performance For Future Opportunities

Josesito Lopez is not supposed to be in this position, fighting Saul "Canelo" Alvarez tonight in a Mexican Independence Day weekend main event. He was supposed to be the too-small warm body put in to get Victor Ortiz a win and move Ortiz along to a pay-per-view main event with Canelo. Instead, Lopez played spoiler, unleashing an attack that broke Ortiz's jaw and forced his foe to quit mid-fight.

The huge win in a fight where Lopez was moving up in weight put him in the driver's seat for his own career. Had he moved back to 140 pounds as he said he wanted to do, he could have been one of the biggest names at junior welterweight, trying to build off the win and establish himself as a force in his division.

But the allure of the big paycheck got to him and up another division he goes to face Canelo.

It's tempting to say that this is a no-risk, huge-reward situation for Lopez. After all, if he loses, it's a fight he certainly is expected to. But the speed with which the boxing world moves could make Lopez go from the darling underdog to the one time upset winner footnote in the span of time it takes the referee to waive the fight off under an Alvarez assault.

Lopez can still win in a loss if he puts up a good fight, however. If he gets steamrolled by Alvarez, it will set him back considerably for all the obvious reasons. But, if he fights like he did in the Ortiz fight, giving as well as he gets and putting on a show for the fans, there will be big fight slots for him on Showtime in the future.

140 pounds has plenty of name boxers for him to fight and make decent money against. But that's only going to happen if he can gut it out and make this a fight despite being 10% heavier than he would normally fight.

Of course, if Lopez wins...

...nevermind, that's not happening.

Canelo Vs. Lopez: Time, TV Schedule, Odds And Live Results

Josesito Lopez will look to do the unthinkable tonight when he steps into the ring to face Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. It's a fight that many expect the undefeated (and much bigger) Canelo to run away with. But that's what they thought would happen to Lopez against Victor Ortiz and he found a way to gut out a win in that fight earlier this year.

Here's the information you need for tonight's bout:

Time And TV Schedule:

There will be one fight shown on Showtime Extreme at 8 p.m. ET. After that, the broadcast will switch over to Showtime at 9 p.m. for a four fight broadcast.

Showtime card:

Canelo Alvarez vs. Josesito Lopez
Jhonny Gonzalez vs Daniel Ponce De Leon
Marcos Maidana vs Jesus Soto Karass
Leo Santa Cruz vs Eric More

Odds:

We broke down the odds for the fight yesterday, which can be read here. But Canelo is a huge -1500 to -2000 favorite to Lopez's +1000 underdog status.

We will have live results right here on SB Nation all night, so keep your browser locked in.

Canelo Vs. Lopez Weigh-In Results: Canelo 154, Lopez 153 For Showtime Bout

Josesito Lopez and Saul "Canelo" Lopez took to the scales this early evening in Las Vegas to make weight for tomorrow night's Showtime Championship Boxing main event. Both men were able to hit the weight for their junior middleweight championship bout without issue.

Canelo weighed in at the 154 pound limit exactly while Lopez checked in at 153, looking to keep the weight close despite being the much smaller man.

Lopez didn't look unhealthy or anything of that nature at the higher weight but, as a fighter who usually competes at 140 pounds, putting on 10% of his body weight could affect his performance come fight time. He was able to upset Victor Ortiz when moving up to 147, but 7 more pounds can make a big difference.

Canelo looked pretty much as one would expect him to look checking in at his normal weight.

For more updates on this fight, continue to follow us here at SB Nation and check out ourboxing blog Bad Left Hook.

Canelo Vs. Lopez: Live Streaming Video Of Weigh-In

Tomorrow on Showtime Championship Boxing, Josesito Lopez will be looking to pull off his second consecutive huge upset when he takes on Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. Alvarez, a rising Mexican superstar with plenty of talent, will be looking to just do his job and take out Lopez without much trouble.

Josesito is coming up from a standard home of 140 pounds to 154 after having made a quick stop at 147 to shatter Victor Ortiz's jaw in the major upset that landed him in this fight.

The two men will step on the scales today to make it official. As we covered earlier in the week, the fight came with stipulations that the two men had to weigh in below certain weights at 30 days and 7 days out from the bout and there had been no issues in those early weigh-ins. It's unlikely that anything will happen at today's weigh-ins at 5 p.m. ET.

Here's the video:

For more updates on this fight, continue to follow us here at SB Nation and check out our boxing blog Bad Left Hook.

Canelo Vs. Lopez Latest Odds

If one wanted to remember just how much of an uphill battle Josesito Lopez has in front of him when he faces Saul "Canelo" Alvarez on Showtime, they only have to look at the current odds for the fight. Lopez is currently a +1000 underdog (meaning if you bet $100 on him, you'd win $1,000) to Alvarez as high as -2000 (you'd have to bet $2000 to win $100).

But you are talking about a guy going up from junior welterweight to junior middleweight to face a superstar. So Lopez's long odds seem correct.

However, this isn't exactly new territory for Lopez. This past June, Josesito was a big underdog to Victor Ortiz. Lopez was coming up from his 140 pound home to 147 to basically serve as a sacrificial lamb on the alter of a Ortiz vs. Canelo pay-per-view superfight.

Lopez fought like hell and was losing the fight on the scorecards, but his attack shattered the jaw of Ortiz and forced the heavy favorite to quit, earning his own shot at Canelo.

But now he's going up to 154 and taking on a much, much bigger man. So can he do it again? That's almost certainly a no.

Canelo Vs. Lopez: Miguel Cotto To Attend Fight, Hoping For May 2013 Date Against Canelo

When Saul "Canelo" Alvarez steps into the ring this Saturday night on Showtime to face Josesito Lopez, he'll do so with a very interested observer at ringside. According to Boxing Scene, Cotto will be in attendance with his sights set on a May 4, 2013 meeting with Canelo.

Obviously they're targeting that Cinco De Mayo weekend date to get it locked up early before it gets taken by Mayweather or Pacquiao. Putting the big Mexican star against the top Puerto Rican fighter would be good business for the traditionally huge Mexican boxing weekend.

Alvarez is a heavy favorite to beat Lopez this Saturday and has plans to fight one more time this year, likely in December. Cotto is scheduled to face Austin Trout in a December 1 HBO bout.

Given some of the huge upsets in boxing this year, including Lopez's shocker over Victor Ortiz, the fact that Canelo still needs to win two fights and Cotto has to get past the very talented Trout should make everyone at least a little cautious about getting overly excited when thinking about Canelo vs. Cotto next May.

Canelo Vs. Lopez Fight Purse: Canelo $2 Million, Lopez $212,500

The official purse figures for Saturday's Showtime Championship Boxing event between Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and Josesito Lopez have been released by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Canelo stands to make $2,000,000 for his efforts while Lopez is slated to make $212,500.

These are only the "official" numbers, there are plenty of things that go on behind the scenes and Lopez trainer Henry Ramirez tweeted out earlier that his man was making "more than the released figure."

Yesterday, we reported on the purses for the other big fight on Saturday night, the HBO pay-per-view bout between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Sergio Martinez. In that fight, Chavez is slated to make $3 million to Martinez's $1.5 million. Obviously it's the bigger fight, so there's more money at play and Martinez is certainly a bigger and more accomplished fighter than Lopez, so this is hardly a slap in anyone's face.

Should Lopez pull off the huge upset, he'll be in line to make some huge money in the near future.

For more updates on this fight, continue to follow us here at SB Nation and check out our boxing blog Bad Left Hook.

After Long Matchmaking Saga, Canelo And Chavez Jr. Cards Go Head-To-Head Despite Everyone's Best Interest

The story of the circumstances that led to Canelo Alvarez vs. Josesito Lopez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. vs. Sergio Martinez taking place on the same night on competing networks.

Canelo Vs. Lopez Video: Oscar De La Hoya Says Canelo Can Compete Against Anybody

Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions is putting on Saturday night's Showtime Championship Boxing match between Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and Josesito Lopez. Marcos Villegas was able to catch up with Oscar and speak to him about the fight, Canelo's progress and the legitimacy of the fight.

Here's what Oscar had to say about Alvarez's current place in the sport:

From what I see now, from what I've experienced. Canelo Alvarez is at the top. He's cream of the crop, he's best of the best. He's a special fighter. He can go up against anybody, and when I talk about anybody I mean ANYBODY.

What he'd like to see Canelo do more of going forward:

I was a big fan of the jab. The jab today is a lost art and he's throwing more jabs. Double, triple, to the body, mix it up. He's got a strong, strong solid fast jab and I want him to use it more.

And on Canelo vs. Lopez and the criticism that came with what many perceive as a mismatch:

Criticism? I was hoping to get criticism. Because when you don't have any criticism toward...whatever you do, then something is wrong. We put on a tremendous card and that's the bottom line. That's all there is to it. The fact that it's on Showtime championship boxing, live and not on pay-per-view is an extra bonus. We're going to be able to watch names like Maidana and you know with Ponce De Leon and Jonny Gonzalez and Canelo with Lopez. It's going to be a tremendous, tremendous night of boxing.

But truly, my favorite thing about watch Oscar speak is the way he communicates like a human emoticon.

Canelo Vs. Lopez: Fighters Make Weight At 7-Day Weigh-In

Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and Josesito Lopez both make it under the 162 pound mark one week before their Showtime Championship Boxing bout.