Canelo Álvarez vs. Avni Yıldırım
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| Date | 27 February 2021 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | WBA (Super), WBC and The Ring super middleweight titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Álvarez win via 3rd-round corner retirement | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Canelo Álvarez vs. Avni Yıldırım was a professional boxing match contested on 27 February 2021, for the WBA, WBC and The Ring super middleweight championship.[1]
After his 19 December 2020 victory over Callum Smith to win the unified super middleweight championship, it was announced on 20 January 2021 that Álvarez would be defending his newly won super middleweight titles against his WBC mandatory challenger Avni Yıldırım on 27 February at the Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida.[2] The bout attracted criticism due to many perceiving Yıldırım, who had not been in the ring since he lost a technical split decision to Anthony Dirrell two years prior in February 2019, to be vastly over-matched. Yıldırım had been named to the mandatory position as a result of the controversial nature of his loss to Dirrell, however, he had remained sidelined due to injury and the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] Álvarez, who was mandated to face Yıldırım in order to retain the WBC title despite being heavily favored, was dismissive of the critics, saying "I really don't have to give any explanation because they're never gonna be happy with anything... He [Yıldırım] has lots of courage. He can be dangerous at any moment because he is a strong fighter."[4] Yıldırım's only other loss on his record had come four years earlier against Chris Eubank Jr. in October 2017.
