Canelo Alvarez defeat Gennady Golovkin on a unanimous decision in their final match of their trilogy.
Canelo Álvarez won his third ring meeting with Gennady Golovkin on Saturday night, earning a unanimous-decision victory in the final bout of their entertaining trilogy.
Four years after the fighters’ most recent meeting ended in a narrow, disputed victory for Álvarez (58-2-2, 39 KOs), the four-division world champion left little doubt about this verdict.
The 32-year-old Mexican star delivered a comprehensive pummelling of the now-40-year-old Golovkin (42-2-1) in the first eight rounds, repeatedly testing Triple G’s famed chin with combinations and overhand rights.
Golovkin started slowly with no clear strategy to take the initiative away from Álvarez. Fighting at 168 pounds for the first time in his career, the Kazakh middleweight star still had moments of his dynamic best in the later rounds against a wearier Canelo, but they weren’t enough to turn the bout against a younger opponent more comfortable at super middleweight, where he reigns as the undisputed champion.
The judges all scored it closely for Álvarez: 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113. The Associated Press also favoured Canelo, 117-111.
Golovkin landed only 23% of his 521 punches, and he only threw 10 punches to Canelo’s body, according to CompuBox. Álvarez wasn’t much more accurate, landing only 26% of his shots, but the Mexican star landed 85 power punches to Golovkin’s 46 and controlled the ring for long stretches.
Golovkin started that he won’t retire after this bout, but the longtime middleweight champion took only his second loss — and the first that was decisive.
They fought to a split draw in their first meeting, but nearly everybody without an official scorecard thought Golovkin deserved the victory. Their second meeting was closer, and while Álvarez won by razor-thin majority decision, Golovkin again disagreed with the judges in his only career defeat.
Álvarez said the rivalry was now personal after years of bad blood and mutual criticism, while Golovkin insisted Álvarez was just another opponent.
