After an excellent championship contest, Canelo Alvarez becomes the unified WBC, WBA, IBF, and Ring Magazine Middleweight World Champion after a hard-punching performance against Daniel Jacobs that went the distance. The main card of the evening lived up to the hype as well, with a brutal third round knockout by Vergil Ortiz Jr. over Mauricio Herrera, Joseph Diaz Jr. claiming the WBA Gold Super Featherweight Title following a seventh round stoppage against Freddy Fonseca, and Lamont Roach Jr. remaining undefeated after a unanimous decision win against Jonathan Oquendo.
Canelo Alvarez
“It was just what we thought. We knew he was going to be a difficult fighter but thank god we did things the right way, what we were going to do. It was just what we thought because of the style of fight that he brings but we just did our job.”
“I’m very happy. I’m very happy with what we did. Obviously I thought it would have been a much more entertaining fight for the public but we did what we can with what the opponent brings. We showed a lot of waist movement, a lot of diversity, a lot of punches. Overall I think it was a beautiful fight.”
On Daniel Jacobs switching to southpaw during the fight: “It’s normal. It’s obviously just a matter of adapting when they switch righty to leftie.”
Who does he want next? “I’m just looking for the biggest challenge. That’s all I want.”
Is there unfinished business with GGG? “No, for me, it’s over. But if the people want another fight, we’ll do it again, and I’ll beat him again.
“That’s why I’m here. That’s what I was born for. To fight. To defend what’s mine. I’ll fight anyone.”
Daniel Jacobs
“I feel accomplished, l feel great. I have to go back to look at the tapes to see exactly what the judges thought. They said to me that I was up, so I was still pushing forward because I wanted to finish strong. He’s a tremendous champion and I tip my hat to him. I gave my all out there. You’ll see Daniel Jacobs bigger and better next time.”
“It definitely took me a couple rounds to get my wits about me, to figure out his rhythm, because he’s a pop shotter. He was a fast guy, very slippery. It was a great contest today, I look forward to the future. I feel like I gave enough tonight to get the victory so I’ll have to go back to the tapes to see exactly what happened.”
“I didn’t feel any different. I’m just a naturally big middleweight. I made the sacrifice of coming in 173 and paying a hefty fine for it but end of the day, I made sacrifices. I got the short end of the stick, but to my fans, to all my survivors out there who appreciate me and my story for what I represent, I thank you. The journey is not over. I continue to strive for success and to be the best I can be.”
On what he said to his son right after the fight: “I asked him, ‘do you think daddy did a good job?’ He said, ‘yes dad, you did a great job.’ That’s all that matters to me, I’ll go home and be the best I can be.”
Vergil Ortiz Jr.
“You know, I‘m actually pretty proud of this fight. If you know me and kept up with my fights, I’m usually not satisfied with my performance. I just want to tell you all and I hope you are too, I am very satisfied with my performance tonight.”
“Everyone thinks that I don’t have all that experience just because I’m 12-0…well I’m 13-0 now. People don’t realize I work in the gym hard every day. I spar world champions all the time. I’m not the one that goes to the world champions and say, ‘hey, can we spar?’ They come up to me. And that’s the difference between me and the other prospects.”
“He was keeping his left hand down the whole time and I knew I was fast enough to capitalize on that. Other than that, I had the fight figured out after the first round.”
“I want to go back to 140 and get that world title. There’s plenty of champions that I believe I can take on right now and I hope after this performance, everyone believes in that.”
“If they tell me, hey Vergil, fight in a world title fight in two weeks, I’ll take it right now.”
Joseph Diaz Jr.
“I felt really good at 130. This is my second fight at this weight and I felt very comfortable. Like I said, 126 was just way too hard for me. I wasn’t able to showcase the power I actually have. Now I’m able to showcase my skills, my defense, my head movement, everything. I feel like I have it all at 130. Tevin where you at?”
“I just feel a lot more stronger. I’m able to make more changes and take more risks because I’m not worried in my head that I’m going to get tired or that my body’s going to get fatigued in the later rounds. At 130, I’m feeling strong, like a beast, and I’m going to become a champion, I promise you guys.”
“I was dealing with depression and I was almost at the end of the road, I was at rock bottom last year. I was going through a lot, a lot of people don’t realize this. I was really going through some tough, tough times. I want to thank my mom, my sisters, my family, God almighty for not doing anything stupid. Anyone suffering from depression, trust me, everything is going to be okay.”
“I’m ready for a world title my next fight. I wanted to fight Tevin Farmer on this card. Then he started to talk all this smack on Tuesday and that he pressed something. He didn’t press anything. Let’s get it Tevin, let’s get this fight.”
Lamont Roach Jr.
“The fight played out good. I think it could have gone better of course. But I’m glad we got this experience, to go up to the championship level. The only guys that beat him became champions and I’m one of them.”
“I knew that I was bleeding because I could feel the trickling but I’ve been getting hit in the face since I was nine years old. It wasn’t nothing I wasn’t used to.”
“He hit me with a clean body shot. I just got myself together towards the end of that round and stuck to the game plan and continued boxing.”
“From round 1 to round 10, I was feeling all of the head butts.”
“He’s as tough as they come. He fought former world champions, he beat a former world champ, he brought the fight to me, and if someone else brings the fight to me, I’m ready, I can go ten, I can go twelve.”
