Canelo Álvarez knocks out Rocky Fielding for WBA super middleweight title – as it happened

That’s all for tonight. Thanks as always for following along with us and be sure to read our ringside report.

Canelo says he felt “very good, very strong” at 168lbs through a translator. “I didn’t have to dehydrate myself to make weight. I feel good and I feel strong.”

He says the body attack was the script from the beginning: “That was the plan in the gym, to hit the body and then move up, and that’s the result. You see the result here.”

On whether he will stay at super middleweight or go back down to 160lbs: “We’ll have to see. I have to talk to my team, enjoy the holiday and then I’ll talk to my team. But right now, without a doubt, what I want are the best fights. ... My goal is to make good fights for the people, for the public, and to make sure the name of Canelo Álvarez and of Mexico is held up high.”

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Oscar De La Hoya is speaking the post-field press conference as the press corps waits for Fielding. He says the team has no opponent in mind 4 May in Las Vegas. That means Canelo is leaving the door open to continuing at 168lbs or could go back down to middleweight. Says De La Hoya of the capacity crowd: “Canelo solidifed the fact that he’s a global superstar. He can fight anywhere and fill stadiums.”

No word from Rocky Fielding just yet. We’ll check in from the press conference shortly, but he looked torn up about the outcome in the ring.

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A total of 35 of the 73 punches Álvarez landed were to the body. An utterly devastating performance at Madison Square Garden. Fielding was simply in over his head.

Canelo is now one of a select group of Mexican fighters to have won world championships in three difference weight classes. (Though to be fair, the real WBA champion at super middleweight is Callum Smith, who handed Fielding his first professional defeat by first-round stoppage three years ago.)

Round 3

It’s all Álvarez early in the third. He’s just picking Fielding off with one body shot after another. Fielding is firing back here. Some nice combinations upstairs, three or four punches all landing, but Álvarez is simply walking through them. Fielding is down a third time, another punishing left to the body! Oh dear. How much longer will it last? Fielding beats the count but moments later Fielding is down a fourth time when Álvarez catches him with a right hand upstairs as he’s ducking down. And the referee has stopped it!

Round 2

It was going to take an off night for Canelo for Fielding to spring the upset but it doesn’t look like that’s what’s in store. Unbelievable power and pinpoint accuracy on these punches so far and so many to the body. A huge left-right combo upstairs by Álvarez caught a lot of leather but still appeared to hurt Fielding. More exquisite body work from Álvarez, who is rearranging Fielding’s insides. And down goes Fielding again with about 20 seconds left in the round. Another left to the body. The Liverpudlian beats the count but there’s a look of concern in his eyes. Who can blame him?

Guardian’s unofficial score: Álvarez 10-8 Fielding (Álvarez 20-16 Fielding)

Round 1

Opening bell. It’s a big Canelo crowd (quelle surprise). Fielding immediately comes out firing the right jab, doubling and tripling it up but without a ton of snap. Canelo very calm, throwing crisp and measured combinations. And Fielding is down with a little more than a minute in a round. It was a left hook to the body that dropped him, a bit of delayed fuse. He beats the count and looks OK. Kind of. Canelo closing in now, cutting off the ring, looking to build on it but not losing his poise. This might not last long.

Guardian’s unofficial score: Álvarez 10-8 Fielding

And here comes Canelo! He enters to México Lindo y Querido by Vicente Fernández, his traditional walk-out song. Yet for the first time ever in New York. In fact this is only the second time Canelo has fought anywhere of the United States farther east than Texas. The first was a first-round TKO of Raul Pinzon at the Miccosukee Indian Gaming Resort on the western outskirts of Miami that happened 10 years ago last week.

OK, we’ve just heard the anthems for the United Kingdom, Mexico and the United States. Then a Rocky Fielding hype video went over like a lead balloon in this room. Oh well. Michael Buffer announces Fielding is making his way to the ring and there he is, emerging from a tunnel at the corner of the room to Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline.

Tevin Farmer has just won a unanimous decision over Francisco Fonseca to successfully defended his title for the second time. All three judges turned in scores of 117-111. The IBF super featherweight will be back in action soon enough: he’s scheduled to headline a 16 March card in his hometown of Philadelphia. But it doesn’t sound like it will be against Gervonta Davis. “We’ve moved on from him,” Farmer says.

Next up: Canelo Álvarez v Rocky Fielding.

We’re down to the final preliminary bout ahead of tonight’s main event: Philadelphia’s Tevin Farmer is defending his IBF super featherweight title against Francisco Fonseca of Costa Rica. In the earlier main card bouts, former world champion Sadam Ali outpointed Mauricio Herrera in a 10-round welterweight fight while electric prospect Ryan Garcia blasted out Braulio Rodriguez in five. You’ll be hearing plenty more about the 20-year-old Garcia in coming years.

Before that Ireland’s Katie Taylor defended her unified lightweight titles with a comprehensive beatdown of Finland’s Eva Wahlström. You can read all about it in our ringside report. Afterward the 2012 Olympic champion was paid a visit in her dressing room by another 2012 Olympic champion.

Hello and welcome to Madison Square Garden for tonight’s super middleweight title fight between Canelo Álvarez and Rocky Fielding. We’re ringside at the hallowed mecca of boxing in midtown Manhattan for what appears to be a mismatch: Fielding, a 31-year-old old from Liverpool, is a domestic-level champion with a secondary world title belt at 168lbs who’s being thrown in at the deep end with a two-division world title-holder, surefire Hall of Famer and one of the best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet. But there’s a reason why they fight the fights. Could this be his night?

The main event fighters should make their entrances around 10.30pm local time. We’ll catch you up on the undercard action between now and then. In the meantime here’s Kevin Mitchell’s interview with the underdog of the moment.

Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s his lookahead to tonight’s main event.

On paper it is an opportunity for Álvarez, the sport’s biggest star, to move up to super middleweight and earn a title in a third weight class while fighting for the first time in the media capital of the world. In reality it is a showcase with Fielding as the presumptive soft touch, handpicked to make DAZN’s newly minted poster boy look good, lending the entire affair the feel of a promotional appearance and brand-building exercise more than a legitimate world title contest.

That is more a testament to the Mexican’s rare vintage than a slight to Fielding, the amiable scouser who has rebuilt admirably with six wins in a row from the wreckage of a first-round knockout loss to Callum Smith (the WBA’s true champion at 168lbs). Fielding earned his seat at Saturday’s table with a fifth-round upset of Germany’s Tyron Zeuge on five weeks’ notice for the organization’s so-called regular title in July.

But make no mistake: Fielding is a domestic-level champion being thrown in at the deep end with a two-division world title-holder, surefire Hall of Famer and one of the best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet. He may not be a million-to-one shot like the celluloid brawler his nickname evokes, but against the classy Álvarez the task will be no less daunting.