Alvarez v. Golovkin

Chris Snan, Staff Columnist~

The rematch between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin for the unified middleweight world championship took place Saturday September 15th, and unlike the first match there was a winner, and a loser this time. Vegas held the rematch between these two elite boxers, and with a sellout crowd of 21,965 people boxing fans everywhere had a good night.

In case you missed the first match between Canelo and “GGG,” it took place last September and ended in a controversial call where the match ended in a draw. Of course, no one likes to see a draw, the competitors hate it, and fans demand a winner. In 2017 everyone felt wronged, especially the defending champ Golovkin. Many believed the score cards were rigged by a couple of the judges, thus resulting in the draw. Viewers everywhere had thought the holder of three middleweight championships, “GGG,” won that fight. However, in two of the three scorecards given by each of the judges, Canelo won 118-100 and another was split 114-114. In the end the final scorecard was awarded to defending champion 115-113 which forced the match to end with no true winner.

This year brought a whole new story line to the rivalry. Unlike the first match, “GGG” was now being forced to defend his championship against Alvarez. This guaranteed a true winner in the rematch, due to the fact that officials can not  split the title in half amongst the two fighters. Going into the fight Golovkin was in the midst of an undefeated run and sketching his name into the history books. With his 20 title defenses in the 160 -pound weight class, “GGG” was the first fighter to set that record since Bernard Hopkins. Hopkins was also sitting ringside during this rematch, but he was hoping Golovkin wouldn’t break his record with a win over Canelo.

The match ended like the first with the outcome being decided amongst the judges, since a knockout did not take place during the 12 rounds played between the two. After speculation, the judges showed their scorecards, the first in favor of Alvarez with a 115-113 victory, the second and third both had an even score of 114-114 to both fighters. With this decision Alvarez was awarded the victory and named the new unified middleweight world champion and ending Golovkin’s historic run. Surely this won’t be the last time we see these great fighters do battle against each other.