Scorecard: Alvarez announces new era with victory

— -- A roundup of the past week's notable boxing results from around the world:

Saturday at Las Vegas

Canelo Alvarez W12 Miguel Cotto
Wins world middleweight title
Scores: 119-109, 118-110, 117-111
Records: Alvarez (46-1-1, 32 KOs); Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: As Alvarez said so explicitly following this huge victory in front of an electric crowd of 11,274 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center: "Now it's my era." Truer words were never spoken as Alvarez, the 25-year-old Mexican star, recorded a career-defining victory to become the lineal middleweight world champion (as well as claiming an alphabet belt stripped from Cotto four days before the fight in a dispute over the sanctioning fee).

Alvarez, a former unified junior middleweight titleholder, won his fourth fight in a row since his lone loss in a record-breaking title unification showdown with Floyd Mayweather in 2013, and he gave Mexico a massive win in its epic and decades-long boxing rivalry with Puerto Rico. Alvarez was a star before the Mayweather fight, and after this win, he will be even bigger. He is now the face of boxing in the wake of Mayweather's retirement in September and Manny Pacquiao's imminent departure from center stage.

In fact, Alvarez's fight with Cotto, contracted at a catchweight of 155 pounds, was the most anticipated of the year other than the May 2 megafight between Mayweather and Pacquiao. There were lofty expectations for Cotto-Alvarez also, and although perhaps it was not the classic some hoped for it was still a very good fight fought at a high level. It was thoroughly entertaining and competitive, despite the absurdly wide scorecards in a fight that virtually every top media member had either 116-112 or 115-113 in favor of Alvarez, who undoubtedly was the rightful winner.

The 35-year-old Cotto, who became the first Puerto Rican fighter to win world titles in four divisions when he upset Sergio Martinez in June 2014, was making the second defense of the lineal world title, and while he may have lost, he looked pretty sharp. He followed Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach's game plan to a T, which was to box and stay on his toes while sticking his jab. He did just that and showed good stamina, but he simply could not overcome Alvarez, who was the much bigger and stronger man, as well as a decade younger. The difference in the fight boiled down to one thing: Alvarez's punches were much harder than Cotto's and the judges scored it that way, even if their cards were too wide. While the quicker Cotto boxed and moved, only occasionally trading, Alvarez walked Cotto down all night and fired bigger, more powerful shots, especially with his right hand. According to CompuBox punch statistics, Alvarez landed 155 of 484 punches (32 percent), and Cotto landed 129 of 629 (21 percent).

The early rounds were more boxing match than fight, but it heated up as it moved along with the back-and-forth and exciting eighth round being the best of the fight, which HBO will replay on Saturday night at 10:15 p.m. ET/PT.

Cotto showed himself to be a sore loser -- not the first time -- by refusing to do an interview with HBO PPV in the ring as well as blowing off the postfight news conference, so his future plans are unknown. If he elects to fight again, he could seek a rematch with Alvarez, since both fighters had rematch options in their contracts in what was, in essence, a two-fight deal. He could also opt to return full time to junior middleweight, where he previously held a title. He fought well enough where retirement would be a surprise. Alvarez, however, will have plenty of big fights to come, be it a rematch with Cotto or somebody else. The fight everyone wants to see is a unification match between Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin, who also happens to be Alvarez's mandatory challenger because he also has an interim belt to go with his two full titles. That would be a massive fight but seems very unlikely to be next, although it probably will happen down the road. Whomever Alvarez fights next, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya announced that Alvarez would fight in 2016 in May and September on the traditional Mexican holiday dates, and that they will big events.

Francisco Vargas TKO9 Takashi Miura
Wins a junior lightweight title
Records: Vargas (23-0-1, 17 KOs); Miura (29-3-2, 22 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: Fight of the year alert! Going in, this match figured to be a good one between two exciting fighters with good power, even if neither has big-name recognition in the United States. But they massively exceeded the expectations as Miura, 31, of Japan, and mandatory challenger Vargas, 30, a 2008 Mexican Olympian, turned in a thrilling and competitive slugfest that ended with one of greatest comebacks of the past decade. It had it all -- big punches, both fighters getting knocked down, blood, heart, plenty of back-and-forth action and major drama. It had everything fight fans want in a prizefight.

Vargas looked like he might score a first-round knockout when he badly hurt Miura, who was making his fourth title defense, with a clean right hand to the center of his face. He battered him in the round and dished out so much punishment that one judge scored the round 10-8 for Vargas despite there being no knockdown. Although Vargas was looking good, Miura, who was boxing outside of Japan for the second time in his career and fighting in the United States for the first time, got himself together and landed some punches of his own because he inflicted damage under Vargas' right eye, which showed a welt and was cut.

Miura had completely shaken off the rough opening round by the fourth round when he nailed Vargas with a clean left hand to the face with a few seconds left in the round for a knockdown. In the fifth round, he had Vargas in deep trouble again as Vargas was taking a lot of punches and his right eye, now with a cut above it and below, was swelling badly and closing quickly. Miura looked like he was going to score a knockout in the eighth round. Late in the round, he buckled Vargas' legs with a straight left hand. Vargas was unsteady and his eye was an absolute mess. The ringside doctor examined him in the corner after the round, and it looked like the fight was going to be stopped. Eventually, Vargas, who was trailing 77-74 and 76-75 on two scorecards and even at 75-75 on the third one, was allowed to continue. And then he authored an improbable and electrifying comeback as he connected with a four-punch combination, including a heavy right hand, to knock Miura down in the opening seconds of the round.

Miura scrambled to his feet, but he was in desperate trouble and wobbly. Vargas attacked and nailed him with repeated blows, including a head-snapping right hand, until referee Tony Weeks stepped in at 1 minute, 31 seconds. It was one of the most dramatic comebacks you will ever see, perhaps the best since the legendary rally by the late Diego Corrales, who got off the deck twice in the 10th round to stop Joe Luis Castillo to unify lightweight world titles in 2005 in perhaps the greatest fight in boxing history. The referee that night? Tony Weeks. Vargas' comeback made it hard not to think of him as something of a Mexican Arturo Gatti, the late Hall of Famer whose legend was built by comebacks in world title fights in the same division where Vargas captured a title against Miura.

Guillermo Rigondeaux W10 Drian Francisco
Junior featherweights
Scores: 100-90 (twice), 97-93
Records: Rigondeaux (16-0, 10 KOs); Francisco (28-4-1, 22 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: An 11-month layoff caused Rigondeaux, 35, the Miami-based Cuban defector and two-time Olympic gold medalist, to be stripped of his two sanctioning body world titles. Shortly after he was stripped, he signed with Jay Z's Roc Nation Sports and was added to the Miguel Cotto-Canelo Alvarez undercard when former super middleweight champion Andre Ward suffered a knee injury and pulled out of the fight he was scheduled for. One of the reasons for Rigondeaux's inactivity was because no American network would put him on because of his overly cautious, non-engaging, passive style. He is technically brilliant but absolutely sleep-inducing. Perhaps the long layoff and chance to be on a big HBO PPV undercard could change Rigondeaux's attitude about how he fights? No way.

Rigondeaux fought even more technically and cautiously than ever, which was especially disappointing considering he had a completely non-threatening opponent in Francisco, 33, of the Philippines, in front of him. It was maddening to watch as Rigondeaux and Francisco basically did nothing for 10 rounds while the crowd booed throughout the alleged fight. They combined to land just 114 punches in 10 rounds (72 for Rigondeaux, 42 for Francisco), according to CompuBox. This was a complete waste of time and that Rigondeaux was paid $350,000 for this exercise in nothingness is amazing. Although Rigondeaux basically did as he pleased to win easily -- the judge who gave Francisco three rounds might have fallen asleep, which would be understandable -- his performance will surely keep him off regular HBO and any other boxing network for the foreseeable future, unless one of them wants to program the cure for insomnia. What in the world can Roc Nation Sports possibly do with him now? Before the fight there was talk about a possible fight with featherweight titlist Vasyl Lomachenko, a match that would pit two double Olympic gold medalists in a pro fight for the first time. But after this wildly horrible fight even that prospect of Lomachenko-Rigondeaux is no longer appealing.

Ronny Rios W10 Jayson Velez
Featherweights
Scores: 97-92, 96-93, 95-94
Records: Rios (25-1, 10 KOs); Velez (23-1-1, 16 KOs)

Rafael's remarks: Rios, 25, of Santa Ana, California, and Miguel Cotto disciple Velez, 27, of Puerto Rico, put on a good show to get the HBO PPV telecast off to an entertaining start. It was an evenly matched fight that figured to be an action fight and that is just what it was. Rios, who has won two fights in a row since a fifth-round upset knockout loss to Robinson Castellanos in October 2014, got off to a shaky start as referee Jay Nady warned him several times for borderline low blows. In the fifth round, Rios strayed low -- clearly not on purpose -- and Nady took away a point. At first Nady's ruling seemed to get Rios out of game plan, which was obviously based on a hard body attack. When Rios abandoned the constant body attack and began going to the head he began to do better in the fight and took over in the second half. It was a tough loss for Velez, who is 1-1-1 in his last three, the draw being in a world title shot against then-featherweight titleholder Evgeny Gradovich in November 2014.