Canelo Alvarez eased to victory over Gennady Golovkin in Las Vegas trilogy fight
(Picture: AP)Canelo Alvarez produced a dominant display to settle his long-running rivalry with Gennady Golovkin and retain the undisputed super-middleweight world titles on Saturday night.
The Mexican bounced back in style from his shock second career defeat at the hands of light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol in May with an accomplished display in front of a partisan crowd at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, securing a second victory in three meetings with his arch-nemesis that will finally turn the page on one of modern boxing’s most high-profile feuds.
But while the previous two bouts - the last of which came back in 2018 - were fiercely competitive and hugely contentious affairs between two boxing icons, there was no doubt whatsoever about the result of a highly anticipated and long overdue trilogy showdown, with Canelo easily claiming a unanimous decision triumph despite a late rally from the ageing Golovkin with scores of 116-112, 115-113, 115-113, which were very generous indeed towards ‘GGG’, to say the least.
Golovkin, who turned 40 in April, insists he has no plans to retire as he remains a unified champion back down at middleweight, while Canelo confirmed that he will require surgery on a worsening left hand injury before seeking revenge on Bivol, who first faces another Mexican in Gilberto ‘Zurdo‘ Ramirez in Abu Dhabi in November.
On Saturday's undercard, boxing's youngest active world champion Jesse 'Bam' Rodriguez, 22, retained his WBC super-flyweight belt despite having a point deducted for repeated low blows in a gruelling affair with Israel Gonzalez, who came up short in his fourth unsuccessful title challenge.
Ageing warrior Gabriel Rosado was sent one step closer to retirement after being shut out in dominant fashion by Golovkin's fellow Kazakh Ali Akhmedov in a clash for the vacant WBC silver and IBF North American super-middleweight titles.
Northampton's Kieron Conway initially gave a spirited performance before eventually succumbing to a wide points loss against powerful American Austin 'Ammo' Williams, who moved to 12-0 and picked up the WBA international middleweight title.
During the early prelims, Diego Pacheco became the WBC USNBC silver super-middleweight champion with a fifth-round stoppage of the more experienced 2012 Olympian Luis Collazo.
Marc Castro stayed undefeated with a ferocious knockout of Kevin Montiel Mendoza secured via a vicious uppercut, while Aaron Aponte was unfortunate to escape with a controversial split-decision draw in his battle with fellow undefeated lightweight Fernando Molina.
The night opened with a comfortable super-flyweight victory for Anthony ‘Superman’ Herrera against Delvin McKinley.
