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After 12 rounds of action in Saudi Arabia, there was little debate who won the undisputed super middleweight championship fight between Saul "Canelo" Alvarez and William Scull. The action was dull, but it was clear Alvarez won the fight and the three ringside judges agreed, giving Alvarez a unanimous decision victory.
The fight was an uninspiring affair that saw Scull, who entered as IBF champion, try to use lateral movement but never engaged offensively while Alvarez tracked him down round after round to pick off rounds.
There was no dominant round for either fighter before the conclusion of the fight. Despite Alvarez doing the better work, he barely edged out two official scorecards to take the unanimous decision win by scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 119-109.
After the fight, Turki Alalshikh asked Terence Crawford to enter the ring before presenting a new belt to Alvarez and introducing a new belt he said was "100% gold" ahead of a planned September fight between Alvarez and Crawford. The two men then came face to face before a Sept. 12 date was announced for their planned bout at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
"I hope September comes another kind of fight," Alvarez said. "For me, it was a boring fight. I hate those kind of fighters."
The plan now turns to the planned fight between Alvarez, now the two-time undisputed super middleweight champion, and Crawford, a former undisputed welterweight champion. That fight will be one of the biggest of 2025 or 2026, whenever the fight comes together.
The undercard on Saturday also left a lot to be desired as none of the three matchups really delivered much action. Badou Jack narrowly outpointed Noel Mikaelian to retain his WBC cruiserweight title in the co-main event. Jaime Munguia got his revenge on Bruno Surace after Surace delivered the upset of the year in 2024 with a Hail Mary of a knockout. The rematch did not see much change from the first fight other than Munguia being more defensively responsible and keeping Surace at bay. And heavyweights Martin Bakole and Efe Ajagba fought to a majority draw in what many hoped would be a fun brawl that struggled to live up to expectations.
CBS Sports was with you throughout the entire way on Saturday with the live results and highlights below.
Canelo Fight card, results
- Canelo Alvarez (c) def. William Scull via unanimous decision (115-113, 116-112, 119-109)
- Badou Jack (c) def. Noel Mikaelian via majority decision (114-114, 115-113, 115-113)
- Jaime Munguia def. Bruno Surace via unanimous decision (116-112, 117-111, 117-111)
- Martin Bakole vs. Efe Ajagba ends in a majority draw (96-94 Ajagba, 95-95, 95-95)
Canelo vs. Scull scorecard, live coverage
| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alvarez (c) | 9 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 118 |
| Scull (c) | 10 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 110 |
