Photos: Canelo Ends Rivalry With Dominant Win Over Golovkin – HUGE Gallery

T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas – In their anticipated trilogy fight, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (58-2-2, 39 KOs) was too young and too good, as he dominated Gennadiy Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs) for the majority of the fight for a twelve round unanimous decision to retain the undisputed super middleweight crown. (photos by Ed Mulholland)

The scores were 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113.

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.

In the first round of the trilogy, they were in close. Golovkin was working a jab and Canelo was looking to land power shots from the start. Canelo was pumping his own jab in the second. The speed of Canelo was the difference as they were boxing away. Golovkin was not throwing enough.  

During the third, Canelo was coming forward and pressing with power shots, some that landing well. The face of Golovkin’s face was already getting marked up. The fourth round saw Canelo connecting the body, circling Golovkin and outlanding him. 

Canelo was pressing forward and tagging up the body of Golovkin in the fifth. There wasn’t much coming from Golovkin other than his jabs. Golovkin has been very tentative with his punches and his inactivity with output was allowing Canelo to pile up the points. More of the same in the sixth, with Canelo controlling the action and outlanding Golovkin. 

In the seventh, Canelo was in close and starting to let his hands go. He continued to outbox and outland Golovkin. There wasn’t much from Golovkin in the eight as well, even when Canelo would pause. Canelo was now going to the body more often and then taking it back upstairs. 

During the ninth, Golovkin was starting to let his hands go more, but he was being outlanded and outworked. Golovkin actually caught Canelo flush and made him back up. He was unable to follow up with much, but was now being much busier to draw Canelo into a brawl. The tenth was mostly a Canelo round, with Golovkin unable to land much. There was a clash of heads that opened up a cut around the right eye of Canelo.

In the eleventh, they both started at an active pace. Golovkin was throwing more, pumping a jab, with Canelo seeming to take a round off as the twelfth approached. During the last round, they were in close with Canelo outlanding the older fighter.