The current WBC middleweight champion Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez has successfully retained his belt in his first title defense fight.

Canelo had a lot of problems with Amir Khan's speed and movement, just the way the British challenger and his team planned. Nonetheless, the heavy punching Mexican connected.

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Alvarez, the favorite of the contest, landed a potential jaw-cracking right hand to Khan's chin in the sixth round which brutally knocked out the 2004 Athens Olympic Games silver medalist before a cheering crowd of more than 16,000 people at the newly erected T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night.

Alvarez, 22, has been touted by many as the new face of boxing in the wake of the recent retirement of the eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao and the undefeated Floyd Mayweather. Alvarez won the WBC middleweight title from Miguel Cotto via a 12-round unanimous decision. He fought Khan at a catchweight of 155 pounds.

With the victory, Alvarez professional boxing record improves to 47 wins one loss and one draw with the 33 victories by the way of technical knockout. Khan, on the other hand, dropped to 31 wins and four losses with 19 KOs.

But it was not the trouble-free night that many of Alvarez's fans were looking forward to seeing from the champion, who is considered Mexico's most popular active boxer of the present time. He had a lot of problems dealing with Khan's movement, just like in his unanimous decision loss to Mayweather in their 2013 junior middleweight championship fight.

"Like I said from the beginning, I knew he was very fast and knew it would be competitive in the beginning," Alvarez said after the championship bout. "But I knew time would come to my favor, and you saw that.

"Many people focus on my power and talk about my power, but I have many more qualities in the ring. I like to surprise everyone," he added.

Alvarez is expected to fight the unified titlist Gennady Golovkin in fall this year.

Tagssaul 'canelo' alvarez, Amir Khan, WBC middleweight championship, WBC, gennady golovkin, manny pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather Jr