LAS VEGAS — Denver boxer Mike Alvarado left the ring in Las Vegas on Saturday night dripping in blood, with cuts around his left eye and mouth. But he left a winner after a 10th-round knockout of Colombia’s Breidis Prescott.
Alvarado then left for a hospital, where doctors worked on stitching his face. What he didn’t expect there was a second meeting with Prescott. The two fighters who had traded brutal punches an hour earlier bumped into each other at the hospital. So they took some photos side by side and then drove back to the arena together in the same car.
“It was funny,” said Alvarado, who walked into a postfight news conference with big, dark sunglasses and an even bigger smile.
Alvarado’s stunning comeback — he was trailing 87-84, 87-84 and 86-85 on the judges’ scorecards before a series of uppercuts knocked Prescott down twice, prior to the referee stopping the fight — moved the junior welterweight to 32-0, with 23 knockouts.
“He was getting tired,” Alvarado said. “I knew he had to go. It was just a matter of me stepping on the gas.”
Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank Boxing, the promoter of the fight, said Alvarado’s victory was cinematic.
“Blood was pouring down the kid’s face. He was trailing on all the scorecards. His only chance was a knockout. Then from nowhere, he gets a knockout. It’s like a ‘Rocky’ movie. That was as dramatic as you can get.”
Nick Groke, The Denver Post
