Alvarez Dominates Golovkin In Vegas

Alvarez Dominates Golovkin In Vegas

There is nothing that can disguise what a sad way the Saul Alvarez Gennadiy Golovkin trilogy played out in Las Vegas. The final chapter was a pale imitation of what we were served up in their previous two meetings.

The scores were close. Too close. 116-112, 115-113, and 115-113. It looked far more one-sided than that. I gave Golovkin the opening round, but Alvarez dominated the following seven rounds, and Golovkin seemed to accept his fate very quickly. The 6th round was admittedly a little closer, but even then, giving Golovkin even a share of that round would have been largely out of sympathy rather than a belief that he actually deserved any positive mark on the judge’s scorecards.

Only in the 9th round did Golovkin show signs of life, but it was far too late to change the momentum of the fight. There was no real urgency in the work of Golovkin, and the closeness of the scores will leave him regretting his early lethargic approach. Even when he found some semblance of success in the closing rounds it was in part to Canelo coasting and/or fading slightly down the stretch. Golovkin badly needed a fast start, and when it didn’t come, his hopes of victory were remote at best.

At 40, and fighting at super-middleweight for the first time, Golovkin looked desperately slow, and just couldn’t seem to pull the trigger for the majority of the fight. Alvarez was in total control, and his performance was critiqued as masterful by some, but in truth, for much of the fight, he had little to beat. An injury to his left hand, hampered his own performance somewhat, in a fight that failed to deliver in many ways.

It was reminiscent of the way the Sugar Ray Leonard Roberto Duran trilogy finished, a fight that was an abject bore, and in full sparring session mode. This fight had that kind of feel. Both fighters deserved better. It came too late in the day, especially for Golovkin. He spent four years waiting for redemption, but then spent 36 minutes waiting for something that never came. When Golovkin finally came to life, the fight had long since gone.

It always had the look of mission impossible for the IBF middleweight champion, but I expected a little more fire in the belly. Golovkin lacked urgency, he needed to gamble. There was no desperation in his work. His performance was flat. The fight was also. Alvarez did what he had to do, but even with the Mexican, you expected a little more. The result wasn’t in doubt from about round 3 onwards. The fight lacked for drama. It lacked for many things. Quite rightly, everyone expected more. It wasn’t more of the same, we got less of the same.

Alvarez kept hold of his WBC, WBO, WBA, and IBF super-middleweight titles and will now look for revenge against Dmitry Bivol, Golovkin should consider retirement.

Photo Credit: Matchroom Boxing