On Saturday, September 16, 2017, Canelo Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) went toe-to-toe in the ring at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV with Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) for 12 incredible rounds of Middleweight action.
For years, GGG had been portrayed as the career killer of boxing’s Middleweight division. His intimidating power made it difficult for him to secure truly formidable opponents and thus, he was lacking a true career-defining fight.
Earlier this year Golovkin’s incredible 23-fight knockout streak came to an end as he safeguarded a narrow unanimous-decision win over Daniel Jacobs. Accordingly, Golden Boy Promotions felt the time was finally right to secure the super showdown between the aging 35-year-old Golovkin, and the now well-primed 27-year-old Alvarez.
The fight itself did not disappoint as all 12 rounds delivered explosive, hard-hitting and super-exciting boxing, just as is was billed that it would. However, many felt it would end in a knockout, rather than a decision, but both fighters proved to have freakishly-strong chins.
Golovkin was clearly the aggressor throughout the fight, as Canelo was often forced to fight backwards and on the ropes due to the pressure of GGG’s relentless attack. However Canelo, often times seemed to land the cleaner punches during the exchanges.
Golovkin did reign supreme in the total punch stats category–landing 218 of 703, while Canelo landed 169 of 505, according to CompuBox fight statistics.
That difference, of almost 200 punches thrown, shows how inactive Canelo was throughout the bout compared to GGG’s relentless attack. However, the connect percentage shows that Golovkin really did not land all that much more than Canelo in terms punches thrown to punches landed.
However the fight statistic’s look, most fans seemed to be frustrated at the result of a draw, as the majority of observers felt it was clear Golovkin won the fight.
Golovkin and Alvarez both exercising the opportunity to rematch is essentially a no-brainer. The fight was exciting and intense and Golovkin has never been the type to back down from a challenge, in fact, he welcomes it. This fight against Alvarez has provided him with perhaps his biggest test to date, along with his biggest paycheck and certainly his largest amount of commercial exposure. A rematch would surely increase these numbers.
Post-fight, in the ring with HBO’s Max Kellerman, both fighters indicated they will look for a rematch.
“Yes, of course. Obviously, yes. If the people want it, yes. He didn’t win. It was a draw,” said Alvarez. “I always said I was going to be a step ahead of him. We’ll fight in the second one, but I’ll win.”
“Look, I still have all the belts. I am still the champion,” said Golovkin. “Of course, I want the rematch. This was a real fight.”
This rematch between Canelo and GGG seems purely inevitable and just as the boxing God’s would have it, Cinco De Mayo’s itself happens to fall on Saturday.
¡Ay Vamos!
Photos by Julio Sanchez/RBRBoxing