Canelo Álvarez beat William Scull in a unanimous points decision Sunday to become undisputed super middleweight champion again.
The 34-year-old Álvarez is a four-weight world champion and entered the fight with the WBA, WBC and WBO titles at 168lb.
He was stripped of the IBF belt last July when he declined to make a mandatory defense against Scull. Álvarez became a two-time undisputed champion in the division for the second time when the judges scored it 115-113, 116-112 and 119-109.
The fight against IBF champion Scull didn’t live up to the hype. Moments after the decision was declared, the promotion for a proposed 12 September fight between Álvarez and Terence Crawford began.
Álvarez was fighting outside the US or Mexico for the first time and had to make plenty of adjustments, including adjusting to the time zone. The fighters walked into the ring and the anthems started around 6.20am local time (11.20pm ET Saturday) in Riyadh, timed so it was in prime time on the US west coast.
The opening rounds were slow with both boxers feeling for range and the intensity gradually lifted with Scull throwing many more punches but barely landing any. Álvarez, by contrast, stayed patient and was landing powerful body punches.
Scull kept moving around, dodging and shuffling, frustrating Álvarez, who later said he hated fighting that style of boxer.
