In one of the best, most technical boxing matches fight fans have witnessed in years, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez scraped by Gennady Golovkin with a majority decision win by the smallest of margins. Quite literally, two of the three judges scored it 115-113 (with the third scoring it a 114-114 draw) for the first undisputed Mexican Middleweight champion since Julio Cesar Chavez. This author had it as a very narrow win for Golovkin, with my unofficial scorecard reading 116-115, and looking at the reactions on various blogs and social media, many fans had “Triple G” up by a slight amount as well.
This will no doubt be fuel for the fire of a third bout between these two stalwarts, who bloodied and bruised each other for 36 minutes of mostly non-stop action. Canelo started out strong and jumped to a lead on almost every scorecard by at least two rounds worth of points. Golovkin came on strong in the middle rounds, and while Alvarez fought back to take some of the later rounds, it was a very, very close last round for both men that tipped the contest in favor of the 28-year-old Mexican superstar, who improved his professional record to a gaudy 50-1-2.
While many people feel that Golovkin won the fight, pretty much every scorecard was close enough that the old saw about awful boxing decisions shouldn’t come into play here. Both men had their moments in each and every round. Alvarez started by out-landing the older Golovkin, but slowed considerably in the later rounds, allowing the previously undefeated bomber to get back into the fight. Canelo came roaring on in the end, which appears to have won him the last two rounds, according to the judges who scored the duel for Alvarez:
Judges scores #CaneloGGG2 pic.twitter.com/xrpSlZ4VXs
— Jon Castagnino (@JonCastagnino) September 16, 2018
Nevertheless, while the man known as “Cinnamon” was on the receiving end of probably the cleanest shot of the night — a big right from GGG — he threw back plenty of return fire that left the face of the politest man in boxing bruised all over and bleeding above his right eye.
So far we’ve had 24 excellent rounds from these two astonishingly talented middleweights, and it looks like we’ll and up soon enough, as Alvarez indicated that he’d be up for another rematch with the Kazakh.
The sooner the better.
For complete “Canelo vs. Golvkin 2” results, including play-by-play updates, click here.