LAS VEGAS – Canelo Alvarez’s perspective on his decisive defeat to Dmitry Bivol has changed dramatically since their post-fight press conference.

The four-division champion seemingly admitted defeat Tuesday, four months after Alvarez curiously contended that he did enough to beat Bivol in their 12-round, 175-pound title fight. Alvarez claimed in the immediate aftermath of his first loss in 8½ years that he didn’t lose more than “four or five rounds” to the unbeaten WBA light heavyweight champion May 7 at T-Mobile Arena.

“It is what it is,” Alvarez told a small group of reporters following his “grand arrival” at MGM Grand. “Like I said before, you are in a sport, you can lose, too. So, you need to go forward. And I think my mind is very strong, so I need to keep [moving] and I have in front [of me] Golovkin. Dangerous fighter, too, good fighter. And that’s it. And, like I said, when you win you celebrate and [you’re] happy and everything. And when you lose, you need to accept it, too, to keep [moving] forward.”

Judges Tim Cheatham, Dave Moretti and Steve Weisfeld all scored Bivol a 115-113 over Alvarez. Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) appeared to win more than seven rounds versus Alvarez (57-2-2, 39 KOs), but the Guadalajara native still suffered his first defeat since undefeated five-division champion Floyd Mayweather beat him by majority decision in their 12-round junior middleweight title fight in September 2013 at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Kazakhstan’s Golovkin will encounter a highly motivated Alvarez on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in the Mexican icon’s first fight since he was outboxed by Bivol. Not only does Alvarez want to regain some of the momentum he had established as the sport’s pound-for-pound king, he also wants to produce a much more convincing victory over his rival than the 12-round, majority-decision win he was awarded in their middleweight championship rematch almost four years ago at T-Mobile Arena.

“Nobody likes to lose, right?,” Alvarez asked. “But it is what it is. It’s boxing. I keep [moving] forward, training hard and that’s it. Next move.”

Alvarez chose this grudge match as his next move instead of an immediate rematch with Russia’s Bivol, who would’ve owed Alvarez a second fight had Alvarez exercised that contractual right.

Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) has lost only the aforementioned majority decision to Alvarez. The IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion is 40 years old, though, and will make his debut at the super middleweight limit of 168 pounds when squares off against Alvarez for the third time.

Those factors have helped Alvarez become at least a 5-1 favorite versus Golovkin, according to most sportsbooks. DAZN will distribute their third fight as the main event of a pay-per-view card that’ll cost subscribers $64.99 and non-subscribers $84.99.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.