Canelo Álvarez v Rocky Fielding: WBA super middleweight championship – live!
- Mexican moves up to 168lbs to face Liverpool longshot in NYC
- Fielding: ‘To fight at Madison Square Garden is unbelievable’
- Tweet Bryan at @BryanAGraham or email him
Hello and welcome to Madison Square Garden for tonight’s super middleweight title fight between Canelo Álvarez and Rocky Fielding. We’re ringside at the hallowed mecca of boxing in midtown Manhattan for what appears to be a mismatch: Fielding, a 31-year-old old from Liverpool, is a domestic-level champion with a secondary world title belt at 168lbs who’s being thrown in at the deep end with a two-division world title-holder, surefire Hall of Famer and one of the best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet. But there’s a reason why they fight the fights. Could this be his night?
The main event fighters should make their entrances around 10.30pm local time. We’ll catch you up on the undercard action between now and then. In the meantime here’s Kevin Mitchell’s interview with the underdog of the moment.
Related: Rocky Fielding: ‘To fight at Madison Square Garden is unbelievable’
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s his lookahead to tonight’s main event.
On paper it is an opportunity for Álvarez, the sport’s biggest star, to move up to super middleweight and earn a title in a third weight class while fighting for the first time in the media capital of the world. In reality it is a showcase with Fielding as the presumptive soft touch, handpicked to make DAZN’s newly minted poster boy look good, lending the entire affair the feel of a promotional appearance and brand-building exercise more than a legitimate world title contest.
That is more a testament to the Mexican’s rare vintage than a slight to Fielding, the amiable scouser who has rebuilt admirably with six wins in a row from the wreckage of a first-round knockout loss to Callum Smith (the WBA’s true champion at 168lbs). Fielding earned his seat at Saturday’s table with a fifth-round upset of Germany’s Tyron Zeuge on five weeks’ notice for the organization’s so-called regular title in July.
Related: Canelo Álvarez awaits in Rocky Fielding’s unlikely shot at glory