'Canelo' Alvarez pummels Hatton on the way to a near shutout

Matthew Hatton is a nice card-filler, but tonight he was facing an arena filler in Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.

The young Mexican showed why Golden Boy Promotions has such high hopes for the redhead nicknamed "Cinnamon."

Alvarez pounded Hatton for 12 rounds on his way to a blowout unanimous decision victory, 119-108 on all cards, to take the WBC super welterweight championship at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

The only thing preventing Canelo from the perfect 12-0 shutout was a point taken away in the seventh for hitting on the break. 

Alvarez, 20, had Hatton hurt badly in the fourth, ninth, 10th and 12th rounds. Hatton's nose was bloodied in the second and Alvarez busted open a cut over his left eye in the fourth. The heavily Mexican crowd roared in approval for much of the fight. Alvarez's style is pleasing not just becuase of the power he throws with, but because he's also willing to take shots to deliver them.

Alvarez (36-0-1, 26 KOs) was incredibly accurate on the night, landing 294 punches in 626 tries (47 percent). His stamina was also impressive. He may have taken one, maximum two rounds off the entire time.

Hatton (41-5-2, 16 KOs) only landed 25 percent of his 546 tries (138 punches). He landed some clean shots but Alvarez walked through everything. Hatton was moving up from welterweight for this fight at 150 pounds.

"Nothing I seemed to do made an impression, so I'm going to move back down to welterweight. He's got a good variety, a fantastic fighter," Hatton told HBO's Max Kellerman. "He's an intelligent fighter. He was just too big in there tonight. I take nothing away from him, he was the better fighter."

Alvarez was particularly nasty to the body. His left hook to Hatton's ribs was vicious all night. He landed 88 body shots, 41 with the left and 47 with the right. His variety and patience is what really sets him apart, especially for a guy who isn't even of legal drinking age in the U.S. Alvarez throws almost everything in combinations and has power in both hands. Compustrike said 257 of his punches were power shots.

Anne Marie Kortright Paige Butcher Amanda Peet Xenia Seeberg The Avatars of Second Life