MMA Fighting has Canelo Alvarez vs. William Scull live round-by-round updates for one of the most anticipated boxing fights of the year at The Venue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday night.
The main event is expected to begin around 11 p.m. ET on DAZN pay-per-view. Check out our Canelo vs. Scull results page to find out what happened on the undercard.
Canelo Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 knockouts) will defend his WBA (Super), WBC, WBO, and The Ring super middleweight titles in the contest. Alvarez has a tentative fight with Terence Crawford this fall with a victory.
William Scull (23-0, 9 knockouts) will put up his IBF middleweight title in the contest.
Get Canelo Alvarez vs. William Scull round-by-round live blog below.
PREFIGHT: This has been quite the weekend of boxing. First the Times Square Fatal Fury on Friday night and now this. The fights have been better tonight than yesterday and we’ve only got one left. It’s time for Canelo Alvarez.
Canelo in white and blue, with matching gloves.
Oh and Bud Crawford is here in attendance. They got to him for a brief interview where he reiterates that he wants a fight against Canelo and calls it “the biggest fight in the last decade.”
Michael Buffer in the ring now and it’s time for the walks. There’s a brief light show and then Scull hits the arena. He’s draped in the Cuban flag and wearing the biggest smile you’ve ever seen.
Now Canelo is up. He’s in the aforementioned blue and white and accompanied by his musical act. Man looks completely unbothered. It’s almost time.
I lied. I forgot we’ve gotta do anthems and all the announcements. But that shouldn’t take too long. Buffer incorrectly says the German national anthem is coming up, but it’s the Cuban one for Scull. And then Latin Grammy winner Majo Aguilar sings the Mexican national anthem.
Buffer finally gets to the announcements and Scull even gets some applause from the crowd. Obviously, Canelo gets more, but that’s to be expected. And NOW it’s go time!
Round 1: Both men out in orthodox. Scull looks much bigger in there and he starts with a sharp jab. Canelo, historically, takes the first few rounds off as he figures out timing and tendencies. Canelo cutting the ring early and pops a right hand over the guard. Scull moving laterally as Canelo keeps cutting the ring. Cull comes forward with his own right hand but comes up short. Canelo easily advancing without even punching. He’s just staying in range for the power and he’s closing Scull down with relative ease. Scull moving and shooting a jab in, then moving again. Very little action in this first round.
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-10 overall.
Round 2: So little offense happened that round, I’m comfortable calling it a 10-10. Canelo threw like four punches and Scull didn’t do much better.
Canelo right back on the march as Scull gets retreating to the ropes and then shifting off. Scull waiting to counter but Canelo hasn’t given him anything to counter yet. Nice right hook to the body from Canelo, finishes with a left up top that was blocked. Canelo with a body shot then a looping right hand that connected. Canelo’s power showing through there as Scull had to scoot away. Canelo so patient as he marches Scull down. Scull shooting the jab now but not landing. This is untenable for Scull. Canelo is freely walking him down and Scull isn’t even winning cleanly at range. Canelo with combo to the body at the bell.
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9 Canelo, 19-18 Canelo overall.
Round 3: Canelo marching. Scull in constant motion and eats a body shot. Scull doing nothing good yet. He’s snapping the jab but none are getting through. And he’s not committing to his right hand. Oh, there it goes and Canelo rolls it off but that landed. He needs that. Can’t let Canelo have free reign. Canelo body shot. Scull with a looping right hook. Scull keeping in the center a little more right now, which helps him fire the right again. Scull getting busy with the jab now as Canelo sort of takes the round off.
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9 Scull, 28-28 overall.
Round 4: Canelo marching and gets Scull to the ropes for a pair of body shots. That’s all he wants right now, to hammer the ribs. Gets there again when Scull gets to the ropes, two-piece. Scull not backing Canelo off him and back to not out-working him. They exchange right hands. Scull upping the output but nothing landing. Canelo not doing anything either though so that’s not exactly great either.
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9 Canelo, 38-37 Canelo overall.
Round 5: Scull with a nice uppercut that splits the guard. He’s gaining confidence now. But Canelo is unbothered. He’s doing nothing for huge stretches though. Tough to win by presence alone. Canelo has thrown 38 punches this fight and landed 12. That is BAD. Scull has only landed 15 punches, but thrown over 100. So that’s bad in a different way. And Canelo comes in with a mean combination but finds air. Scull still on his bike. Canelo lands to the body. Scull lands his own to the body. Right hand from Canelo.
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-10, 48-47 Canelo overall.
Round 6: Scull lands a shifting right hand out of the gate that lands clean. His best punch of the fight. But he follows up with nothing and Canelo keeps walking him down. Body shot from Canelo and a return by Scull. Canelo opens up to the body and Scull returns to the body. It would be cool if Canelo started to try and punch at some point. This one punch every 23 seconds is not good viewing experience. And Scull’s “jab that gets parried every 10 seconds” isn’t much better. Canelo swings and misses to the body.
Also, the commentary team is ABYSMAL. “He’s not here to win” was just said about Scull who is the only fighter consistently doing stuff, even if it’s not effective. So in the bag for Canelo it’s painful.
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9 Scull, 57-57 overall.
Round 7: Commentary not tacitly crapping on Scull to make a point about the IBF and mandatory challengers. Anything other than talk about how Canelo is underwhelming. He keeps marching, Scull keeps moving. Rinse, repeat. The commentary would suggest that Canelo is obliterating Scull. I guess he’s winning but it’s not impressive. He’s landed 25 total punches in 6 rounds.
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9 Canelo, 67-66 Canelo overall.
Round 8: I bet you could guess what’s happening in this round: Canelo marches forward and lands to the body once every 20 seconds, Scull snaps a jab that gets parried. They move and do it again. All while the commentary team gets really close to downright insulting Scull. Canelo gets Scull to the ropes and they both flurry. Canelo lands to the body, Scull counters but gets blocked. Scull dancing around, Canelo moving. The commentary team keeps saying Scull “isn’t trying to win.” This is a dreadful watch at this point.
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9 Canelo, 77-75 Canelo overall.
Round 9: The referee stops them to tell the boys “let’s fight” and the commentary team immediately suggests that message is exclusively for Scull. Again, I’d like to reiterate that Canelo is throwing about 10 punches a round.
Low blow from Canelo gets a pause. Light body shot. Nothing new or different has happened in this fight since Round 3. Scull misses a right hand. The crowd getting a little restless. Scull eats a body shot, moves around.
Oh, I lied. Canelo has thrown 58 power shots through 8 rounds. Another body shot. That was a good one at least. Combination hit him. Scull moving around, showboating. A particular commentator is now my mortal enemy for how shameless he’s being in deference to Canelo. The others are only slightly less obvious about things. The round ends. Only nine more minutes of this nonsense.
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9 Canelo, 87-84 Canelo overall.
Round 10: We’re now at the point were the commentary team talks about other things. Nothing to talk about in the ring, that’s for sure. Scull keeps circling around, Canelo keeps cutting the ring and landing one body shot a minute. Oh! Scull landed a nice right hand as Canelo came in! He ate it fine and the commentary team immediately downplayed it. I’m starting to think they might have a point of view here.
“His excellency brought you over here, do something! Make your country proud.”
Man, I hope William Scull’s family isn’t watching this broadcast because they’re gonna need to fight this commentary team just to defend his honor.
Anyway, same story of the round. I feel like Nihilist Arby’s right now. Canelo round? who cares. It’s all meaningless. Eat Arby’s.
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9 Canelo, 97-93 Canelo overall.
Round 11: Canelo gets warned by the referee to start fighting and he tells the ref to tell Scull that. Again, neither guy is doing anything. He could try harder.
Shout out to Daniel Jacobs who get brought in and finally calls balls and strikes, saying Canelo is barely winning, and could absolutely be doing more. That’s obviously true to anyone with eyeballs other than the commentary person who shall not be named. That individual then immediately comes to say that Canelo isn’t doing great but Scull isn’t giving him anything to counter, as if that’s the only way to fight.
Anyway, same story as the other rounds. No big shots landing. Some solid body shots get in from Canelo as Scull moves around. Canelo lands a decent left hand as Scull charges in and the commentary team is a little rattled by the idea that Canelo might not be God himself, ardently defending their belief that he can do no wrong and Scull is the worst human alive.
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9 Canelo, 107-102 Canelo overall.
Round 12: Welp, I’m sure Canelo is winning and now we’re just three minutes away from the blessed conclusion of this “fight.” Scull moving a little less but eats another body shot. Then he counters Canelo as Canelo starts trying to fight now. The crowd getting up because Canelo is no longer purely waiting so we’re getting some power shots in and Scull is firing back hard. Canelo charges in with a body combo.
And now the commentary team is talking about a referee being able to deduct points for not punching. Scull thrown far more punches by the way. These shameless souls. Only 30 more seconds of listening to them. They are absolutely raking Scull over the coals and doing everything but calling him a coward.
It would be cool if these people never called a fight again.
Anyway, Canelo wins. Dear god let’s hope the Bud Crawford fight is better than this.
MMA Fighting scores the round 10-9 Canelo, 117-111 Canelo overall.
OFFICIAL DECISION: Canelo Alvarez def. William Scull by unanimous decision (115-113, 116-112, 119-109).
POST FIGHT: They clear the ring and Bud Crawford comes in to stand opposite Canelo. They are going to fight in September it seems and they have some special Ring belts. They teased it earlier in the night as the most expensive belt ever. And it’s taking a lifetime to get it out. It looks like a traditional boxing belt but it’s 100 percent gold.
Turki confirms the Crawford-Canelo fight will be Sep. 12.
Canelo now getting an interview, says Scull fought just to survive and he doesn’t like that. He hopes Crawford won’t be that way. I assure you he won’t.
Crawford now gets interviewed and says he’s happy for the opportunity, credits Canelo for doing what he had to do.
