LAS VEGAS – Canelo Alvarez hardly covered himself with glory in his split-decision victory Saturday over Erislandy Lara in their non-title super welterweight bout.

Alvarez struggled to cut off the ring, often flailed helplessly at Lara and, despite moving forward relentlessly throughout the bout, never had Lara so much as wobbled.

But Alvarez won the bout, and in boxing, nothing is more important than that. Memories will fade and in a few months, those who weren’t impressed with what they saw will forget it.

Alvarez generates big money – he sold out the MGM Grand Garden on Saturday, attracting 14,239 fans who roared every time he got close to hitting Lara – and that rules the day.

Alvarez will move on to a big-money fight in November and the controversy over whether he deserved to win will be long forgotten.

Judges Dave Moretti (115-113) and Levi Martinez (117-111) scored it for Alvarez, while Jerry Roth had it 115-113 for Lara. Yahoo Sports also had it 115-113 for Lara. Read Full Article >>