At the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Mexican superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (58-2-2, 39 KOs) retained the IBF, WBA, WBO, WBA super middleweight titles when he outboxed Gennadiy Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs) for the majority of their trilogy fight for a twelve round unanimous decision.
The scores were 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113.
Most observers scored Canelo as the winner by a much wider margin.
Their first bout, in 2017, ended in a controversial twelve round split draw. The 2018 rematch saw Canelo win a very close twelve round majority decision. Both bouts took place in the middleweight division.
Prior to the fight, Canelo had vowed to send the 40-year-old Golovkin into retirement.
But Golovkin, although dominated during many of the rounds, never found himself seriously hurt or in trouble.
Canelo explains that he realized early on that knocking Golovkin out would be difficult.
“First round, [I knew it would be hard to knock Golovkin out],” Canelo said. “I knew he’s tough. He’s a tough fighter."
Canelo would also indicate that his left hand was injured during the fight and affected him during the fight. The injury was pre-existing and appears to have gotten worse while fighting Golovkin.
There was some talk of Canelo fighting again in the first half of 2023, but that appears to be in real jeopardy as he plans to have surgery to fix his left hand injury.
"I need surgery. My left hand is not good. But I’m good. I’m a warrior. That’s why I’m here. I can’t hold a glass [because my hand is so bad]. It’s really bad. But I’m a warrior," Canelo said.
"I need to come back and get strength in my hand, recover my hand and my body so I can come back stronger than ever."
