Khan dominates Alexander but wants Mayweather next

Photo Credit: Esther Lin / SHOWTIME

The main event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena placed two top welterweight contenders against each other in Amir Khan vs Devon Alexander. The hope for Khan was that a convincing win would place him in the Floyd Mayweather sweepstakes.

Khan earned a unanimous decision victory over Alexander as he dominated the action for the better part of all 12 rounds. Khan was the faster fighter on the outside beating Alexander to the punch. His jabs set up quick right hands that not only prevented Alexander from getting off his own punches but did damage each round.

The look on Alexander’s face was one of lost confidence as he had to know that he was behind but he kept coming forward and never stopped trying.

By the time the 12^th round ended the crowd of 7,768 in attendance knew that Khan had won the fight and that it was just a matter of announcing the scorecards which read 119-109,118-110 and 120-108 all in favor of Khan.

Post-fight Khan was asked if he still looked forward to an opportunity at facing Floyd Mayweather should a much anticipated fight between him and Pacquiao not be made.

“I just fought a three time world champion and proved myself to be a force at 147lbs. Now I feel that I’ve proved to everyone that I deserve that fight. I worked really hard. I really believe that I’ve earned the right to fight the best in the world in Floyd Mayweather,” said Khan.

Oscar De La Hoya who was present ringside said that this is the best Khan he has ever seen.

In a very uneventful outing Keith Thurman earned a unanimous decision over the previously undefeated Leonard Bundu. The official scores were 120-107 on all three judge’s cards. The fans let their reaction to the fight be known by booing Thurman throughout bout. As he was being interviewed post fight the fans once again reacted to Thurman in a negative tone, something that he hasn’t had to deal with as he has delivered crowd pleasing knockouts in the past.

The issue was more of the style used by Thurman tonight which saw him stay outside and use lots of movement instead of his normal aggressive attack. With the win Thurman stays undefeated and retains a WBA title.

Abner Mares gave the fans what they wanted, an action packed fight by stopping Jose Ramirez in five rounds. The game Ramirez gave all he had and was able to get up from a couple of knockdowns but the end came after the fifth round when the corner of Ramirez had seen enough and protected their fighter from taking any more damage.

Following the fight Mares would say that he is looking forward to becoming a four-time champion by winning a title in the featherweight division. Mares suffered his only loss to WBC Featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez last year and made it known he wants to avenge that result.

“Ramirez is tough. I wanted to show the fans I could take a punch because of the knockout loss,” said Mares. Possible opponents include Gonzalez, Leo Santa Cruz, Nicholas Walters and Vasyl Lomachenko.

Top ranked junior middleweight Jermall Charlo (20-0) got one step closer to fighting for a world title by knocking out Lenny Bottai (22-3) in the third round. The end came at 38 seconds of the third when Charlo dropped Bottai with a devastating right hand. The fight was stopped by referee Jay Nady when the corner of Bottai had seen enough and threw the towel end to protect their fighter who was still stumbling on his feet after beating the count.

Charlo is now the mandatory challenger for the International Boxing Federation title held by Cornelius “K9” Bundrage. “I want the IBF belt. It was easy work and I want K9 next,” said Charlo.

The very talented Errol Spence Jr. wasted no time in attacking the tough Javier Castro over five rounds before the referee had seen enough calling a stop to the action at 2:43 of the round. With the win the 2012 Olympian remains undefeated and improves to 15-0 (12 ko) and looks to continue to improve in 2015.

“I hit him with everything and he wouldn’t go down. I plan on stepping up in 2015,” said Spence Jr.