WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (55-1-2, 37 KOs) easily annihilated WBC mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim (21-3, 12 KOs) on Saturday night at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida. Canelo dominated every moment of every round. He dropped Yildirim with a huge right hand in round three, then pummeled Yildirim until the bell. Yildirim quit after round three.
Promoter Eddie Hearn announced that Canelo will face WBO champion Billy Joe Saunders on May 8.
Absolutely pathetic effort from Yildirim. Disgraceful to have this rubbish served up to boxing fans as a World title fight.
WOW, what a shock 🙂 lol
at this point Canelo should Only be in marque match-ups.
That was a pathetic display from Yildrim, a heavy bag with arms.
Surely there’s some way of suing this guy for wasting the publics time?
And the way they dragged that junk out – almost endlessly with national anthems and musical crap and fireworks, and of course the obnoxious talking heads!
I canceled my DAZN subscription 6 months ago. For some reason they never shut it off. Absolute torture! You get what you pay for. Horrible announcing, complete mismatch bouts, and they couldn’t even get the graphics right! They had McWilliams Arroyo name and record up for both fighters. Can’t see this company lasting much longer. Amateurville.
You are lucky! Free DAZN! LOL….. Tonight was simply target practice banging away at a stationery target saying “hit me here!”…. No surprise!
told you guys Yildrim way too slow just stood there and got pummeled not much happening up stairs the guy should retire after that performance pathetic
Unfortunately mandatory’s are bums sometimes like this turk was, but now Canelo can move on to bigger and better things again.
Easy work, as predicted.
Positive note: Canelo took care of business efficiently.
While Yildirim was less than a “longshot,” at least he didn’t carry him for 12 rounds…… yes, it’s a slight swipe at Plant and Saunders….
Now we wait for the critics, and Saunders/Plant/Charlo to make excuses.
I don’t know what was worse, watching the fight or listening to The DAZN commentators sugar coat Canelo being the greatest Mexican boxer of all time.
It was another bum of the month. David Benivedez would be another story.
If they don´t get to his price
That’s about 90 percent of canelo fighters,
Agree, the commentators are very onedimensionel in their views. Objective views and inside analystics drown in statistics and inside joking.
You are correct!
The blow by blow commentary back in the day was magic when compared
this type of induction ceremonies they carry on every night where every fighter they like is the best this and the greatest that. They are nauseating and I turn them off and enjoy the fight in quiescence.
I turned off the sound for most of the Zhang fight. The DAZN talking heads are the worst.
Agree canelo fights guys that nobody knows
The Turk didn’t even try.
even for a promotion that Main Events youtube fighters, this was not worth watching. Billy Joe Saunders fight needs to be made, but why deny fans another fight with Triple G to prove he dominant after two close fights. * that is still PPV worthy.
Haven’t seen any destruction , was just the distraction from the real world . That fight was a fraud .
Mandatory’s need their shot regardless of what we fans think. They are the ones who risk their lives in there and they shouldn’t be pushed away because of what the fans want. Win, lose, or draw they have to get their crack at the title. If not, then what is the point of rankings. I know some rankings are questionable but that is another story. Canelo did what he was suppossed to do and has fought top level opposition. He deserves to take a ‘Keep Active’ bout here in there. The guy is on another level and is doing what GGG never dared to do. That is going to 168.
The problem is he shouldn’t have been a MANDATORY! He hadn’t beat anyone to be rated in the top 10!
Most move up in weight classes because they can no longer make the weight. Nothing daring about that.
Why some announcers threw Canelo under the bus for taking this fight is something i dont understand. I always thought manditory fights were just that manditory. Take the fight and try and defend it or not take it and surrender it.
Canelo is at the point he should be fighting top quality opponents. He doesn’t need the title to get paid top dollar. Screw the alphabet gods!
Canelo is going to beat Saunders too. He’s too good and on top of his game right now.
Agreed. Saunders has no power to fend off such a beast! Boring match up!
The WBC made this guy the mandatory contender! Boxing is better without these jokers. The Sulaiman family can find another family business to run for all I care.
These organizations will continue to exist as long as fighters pay them sanctioning fees for their worthless belts instead of keeping their hard earned money for themselves..
So much for getting in 6-8 rounds against Avni. Okay, I hope Canelo vs. BJS really occurs.
Another “quality” mandatory challenger foisted on the public by the WBC morons.
For such a big opportunity, Yildirim sure seemed quit to want to exit the fight. Didn’t take many chances, and didn’t seem especially hurt. Just took the money and ran I guess. Guess he figured he was out of his league and would try again another day. Feel sorry for those who bought tickets to that….
*quick* to want to exit the fight I meant
So Canela beat up on his sparring partner and got paid smh
Unfortunately, the WBC isn’t the only one to do this…. theres the WBA with their 6 world champions in the same weight…..
Theres always been ranking fiascos, its part of boxing.
The fight with Saunders is supposed to be a done deal, let’s hope he shows up to fight and not to simply survive.
It would be a beautiful world if Plant fought someone in the meantime, just so he won’t argue later that ring rust was the reason for getting handled by Canelo.
Predictable, but to be fair to Canelo, this guy was a mandatory. (only in boxing).
Let’s see if BJS can get himself motivated for this one, if he’ on form I reckon his style gives Canelo headaches, whether he can keep it up for 12 rounds is another story, guess we’ll see.
canelo is too slow for Billy Joe Saunders its a bad matchup for canelo
Canelo deserves an easy fight every now and then. Consider it being able to have a lunch break during work. Training and fighting the best is physically and mentally draining and I think all top fighters should be able to take a few easy ones along the way.
Destroyed? Please give a break!!…. Yidirim was fine and whistling on route to pick up his paycheck.
To be fair Canelo had no choice but to fight this bum in order to keep his title…now billy joe is next… may 8th hopefully he’ll give a better account of himself… can’t be soon enough for me
Let’s call this a “no title/ stay busy” fight… just to help him stay sharp for May 8th (fingers crossed).
Maybe if Warrington, who was considered the best 126 lbs in the world, had taken a stay busy fight, he wouldn’t have gotten blasted by Mauricio Lara a couple of weeks ago.
Food for thought.
Again, while I believe Canelo has reached this stage due to personal merit and hard work, I do hope Saunders provides a solid test.
Seeing Saunders a few years ago struggle with feather fisted Willie Monroe, only to have Canelo and GGG go to war a few weeks later can be indicative of the likely outcome.
Yes, both have matured since then….. but Canelo has become markedly better, while Saunders remains consistent…. consistently boring.
Hard to forget the trouble Saunders had with a totally shot Andy Lee.
As usual, the only reason to tune is was to see Kate Abdo. The HW fight was the best of the night.
What a ridiculous event. DAZN needs to take a page out of HBOs book if they want to put on a proper show. The Pre-Fight was nauseating. Why did it take so long to get these guys in the ring?Excellent job, DAZN, you clowns. Who is running things over there. They have no clue.
I agree with Jeff and we can thank Al Hayman and his gang for diluting the quality of today’s boxing . They attempted to reform the sport by paying all of their boxers under contract more money and formed a union also part of the plan was to eliminate golden boy and HBO boxing . As a result of those actions other promoters followed suit and now true boxing fans have to suffer watching b and c level fighters on prime time.
Al Hayman has made cowards out of all the fighters that sign with him. None of the boxers will push to fight someone not aligned with Hayman. Hayman is ruining boxing and getting rich doing it. What a CLOWN!
Here’s the deal, I would never admit that Canelo is pound for pound until wow.
Why now? Because he loves to fight, he stays active and fights every few months, he takes his craft seriously and he is a consumate pro.
Don’t judge by some easy fights, he could have taken and screwed around yet he chose to be active
Props to Canelo!
OK I admit hes a great fighter. But yet Beterbiev and Bivol are never mentioned. No not cruiser weight, light heavy weight. Those are the only two challenges left. Its not his fault though hes in the era hes in. The sh*t list goes on and on. Kind of like the era of the Klitschkos. Maybe when Beterbiev is 40.
Why has he run away from Andrade and the Charlo’s? I think he could beat them but he won’t make the fight!
Joe Blow… it’s simple, why don’t beterbiev and bivol fight each other?
If they’re so great, why do you feel they need Canelo to prove it?
I mean, they got each other…… right?
Nothing wrong with a civil war in the ring, is there?
As for why Canelo has chosen 168 as his weight…. consider this: Canelo started fighting professionally at the age of 15, at 140 lbs.
He’s a fairly short guy.
He tried 175, beat Kovalev….but figured that maybe he didn’t feel his best at that weight.
The Robot ! Lol why not the Trash Can ?!
Yildirim did’nt perform. He was’nt in the ring.
He must have left the fight in Turkey. Easy money for Canelo and easy money for the Yildirim.
At least Billy Joe can fight.
The turk lost his last match, was knocked cold by Eubanks in 2 rounds 4 fights ago. was out of the ring for 2 years , and was still mandatory. This sport is dying.
Good point – crooked ratings absolute garbage – no way should it have been on PPV, should have been held in a church hall. A disgrace to the sport. Canelo should have given up his belt rather than lower himself to this total farce. Any fool could have predicted the outcome. Why did it even happen. Why did it have to happen. Why did people pay money to attend. Why didn’t he even try. Why did this match take place? Why is anyone justifying this complete and utter joke.
It’s been dead for a long time now that guy was a disgrace get punched once and quit shameful
Boxing been dead a long time but this guy was a disgrace get punched once quit on your stool his pay should be docked
The sport has been dying for years and yet its still alive…
Canelo is always in top shape and always puts on a good performance, have to give him that credit. The problem really is, is there anyone out there at 168 that is a decent challenge? Don’t see anyone right now.
Benavidez may give him trouble, so he will probably never get a fight!
Canelo had an easy tonight, but he is on for a tough fight with Saunders.
In fairness, DAZN has shown good fights with solid matchups and actually many were exciting, for the price of their yearly subscription….otherwise we would have paid at least $60 for horrible mismatches like this fight….Give or take the broadcast ers… DAZN is entertaining and certainly worth the price.Could do better with Canelo matchups though.it seems like they are protecting their meal ticket…
.now this fight was horrible…Yildirim just collected an effortless paycheck… respect all that step in that squared ring but this was garbage….Canelo is doing exactly what he should ….keep winning…but I am beginning to see that his arsenal is limited…seemed like a better fighter at the lower weights….that may speak of the competition in this division….need to see Canelo in with some of the young Lions … particularly to crown him as top boxer to date…I can see where at this weigh a slick mediocre boxer could beat Canelo…
If this fight was on PPV, I would not have bought it nor many of Canelo’s fights except with GGG!
Avni should change his name to “Avni “Yield to him”.
Why would he stand stone footed in front of a devastating puncher like Canelo and expect a different result. Shame on you Joel. He has no head movement. What a waste of a great opportunity. He didn’t even try to run. He was stopped in similar fashion by Chris Eubanks. Ranking today is so vert cheap and everybody anybody becomes mandatory. This is crazy.
Yildrim needs a rematch – he was playing possum. Turkey has had some great fighters over the last 20 yrs – no one can name one but that’s not the point. Yildrim will never be forgotten he’s on most peoples p4p lists for a reason. He needs to fight Jake Paul next then Fernando Vargas – finishing with a fight against Joseph Parker. I see people asking why this fight took place? Not sure what their problem is – Yildrim is a household name in Botswana.
Mismatch as predicted. Yildirim had no more business in the ring with Canelo than Mitch McConnell’s wife Elaine Chao. Canelo seems to be fighting not to lose, rather than challenging himself to face the best. I think this is a weak division too, which is why he chose it. I wonder if he will move up in weight again once rising slugger Edgar Berlanga begins breathing down his neck.
Canelo uses the Mayweather philosophy. Fight them when they are young and inexperienced or when they are past their prime. That is what Mayweather did when he fought Canelo and Pacquiao. Surprised Canelo is calling for a rematch with Mayweather now that he is at his peak. Maybe he is still scared of Mayweather?
Canelo, go fight a top notch dangerous fighter ,
Canelo demolishes another all time great. He is the cure for covid. This man can breathe underwater and live on Mars. Mexican fans should be proud to deliver such an incredible human to the rest of the world. He even cut through a washed up Kovalev like a knife through butter. I’m dying for an Avni Yildirim or Rocky Fielding rematch.
He batters every future HOF they throw at him…..,…..except for Mayweather, Lara, GGG x 2..
In an attempt to keep this “non political”… I must say you sound very sore about Canelo, his culture, and his contributions to the sport.
I get it, you view most things through that distorted (maga) lense.
Canelo is no superman, no cure for Covid or even the common cold. What he is, is an excellent fighter, whose accomplishments have been earned via physical battle.
Crawl back to your backwards community and stick to your biased fueled forums.
I cancelled my DAZN because Canelo only fights guys like this. I wouldn’t watch this fight if it was free.