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Junior middleweight titlist Saul “Canelo“ Alvarez, the 21-year-old Mexican star, was matched with old warhorse and former champ Shane Mosley for one reason: to etch the name of the likely Hall of Famer on his résumé. And etch it he did in the co-feature, winning a unanimous decision to retain his title for the fourth time on the card headlined by Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s junior middleweight title challenge of Miguel Cotto on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Alvarez, with his youth and power, muscled his way past Mosley, whose reflexes and speed are gone at age 40 after a 19-year career and hundreds of amateur fights. But unlike his past three fights -- in which Mosley did almost nothing in losses to Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao and a draw with Sergio Mora -- Mosley came to fight. His will was clearly there. But he could not make his body fire at will as he once did. Alvarez was happy to take advantage, cleaning Mosley's clock with numerous clean right hands and left hooks. Both fighters worked hard to the body, but Alvarez seemed to win that battle, too, on his way to winning by scores of 119-109, 119-109 and 118-110. had it for Alvarez, 118-110.“This was a great experience,“ Alvarez said. “I felt really good and I want to thank Shane for giving me this experience. He's a great fighter, a true veteran. I tried to knock him out. He took a lot of punches, but it didn't work.“ Alvarez (40-0-1, 29 KOs) repeatedly rocked Mosley (46-8-1, 39 KOs) with shots, landing 348 of 673 punches (52 percent). Mosley couldn't get away from even looping right hands. It was the most blows landed on Mosley in the 34 of his fights that CompuBox has tracked. “His defense was really good and he was really fast,“ said Mosley, who has won five titles in three divisions. “He can go a long ways. When the kids start to beat you, you might need to start going to promoting. I didn't expect him to be that fast or that good. “He's up there with the top guys [I've faced]. Mayweather is fast, Cotto, all those guys I fought. He's up there with them.“ Alvarez, fighting on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo and with the crowd behind him, suffered a small cut over his left eye in the third round from an accidental head-butt, but it was a dominant round for him, including rocking Mosley with a clean right hand. The cut never became a serious factor, even though there was a trickle of blood running down Alvarez's face in the late rounds. “The cut didn't really bother me,“ he said. “My corner knew how to handle the situation. This is a huge night for me, all of the experience, the cut, all of it was new.“ Mosley managed to land 183 of 745 punches (25 percent), according to CompuBox.
