Gennady Golovkin, Canelo Alvarez deliver a classic

Las Vegas: Three-belt champ Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez look set to rule the resurgent middleweight division for years to come after their 12-round slugfest on Saturday fittingly ended in a stalemate. “It was a great fight,” said boxing promoter Oscar De La Hoya, adding, “This is one of the best fights we have seen in recent years.”

Golovkin, who was making his Las Vegas debut, and Mexico’s biggest star Alvarez delivered on all levels as two of boxing’s pound-for-pound best met at the T-Mobile Arena in a highly-anticipated fight that was two years in the making.

The evenly-matched fight ended in a draw which meant Kazakhstan’s Golovkin would keep his World Boxing Council, World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation belts. “We knew going into this it would be a war,” said Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez. Golovkin will earn a $3 million purse and Alvarez will make $5 million.

Golovkin is considered one of the fittest athletes in boxing and he needed every ounce of that conditioning and every extra breath of air to withstand the force of Alvarez’s body and head punches.

Alvarez says he would use his rematch clause for a second fight against knockout king Golovkin, who has now gone the distance his last two fights. In March, he had his streak of 23 consecutive knockouts snapped when he outpointed Daniel Jacobs.

Some said Golovkin was showing his age as Jacobs had an unexpected surge over the final three rounds before losing by a narrow decision. Alvarez doesn’t think Golovkin is ripe for the picking but says he might have lost some of the fear factor.