LAS VEGAS — Canelo Alvarez embraced the final challenge from his long-strained rival Gennady Golovkin on Saturday night, and after convincingly defeating the long-reigning middleweight champion, Alvarez hugged the man he had finally definitively conquered.
“Thank you so much, my friend. Thank you, Golovkin,” Alvarez said he told the 40-year-old Kazakhstan fighter whose career record (42-2-1) is only blemished by the four-division champion from Mexico.
Coming off his first loss in nine years, Alvarez, 32, delivered a crisp, energetic showing, continually beating Golovkin to the punch and winning the limited exchanges that occurred.
This was not like the first two classic brawls between these champions, when Golovkin was viewed as rightfully objecting to judging that left him with a 2017 draw against Alvarez.
In their 2018 rematch, Alvarez’s role as the aggressor paced him to victory in another tightly contested outcome that Golovkin protested.
There was none of that Saturday at T-Mobile Arena.
Undisputed super-middleweight champion Alvarez was clearly the better man, landing blows that backed up the current middleweight champion, causing Golovkin to uncharacteristically retreat from exchanges.
Still, neither man touched the canvas in the bout, and after 36 rounds without that ever happening, Golovkin wanted to bury the hatchet, too.
In the ring afterward, Golovkin said, “I want to shake hands with Canelo,” reaching to clutch the hand that helped Alvarez land 86 power punches to Golovkin’s 46.
Added Golovkin: “He’s a real warrior.”
Here’s how USA TODAY Sports’ Lance Pugmire scored the bout:
Round 1
Following another entrance sounded by the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” Golovkin found the ring and watched as a mariachi band trumpeted Alvarez’s ring walk adorned by a fireworks display.
Golovkin may be performing in his first super-middleweight fight, but it’s worth recalling he fought more than 300 amateur fights at t
