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17th September 2017
06:38am BST

If the fight had been on a slow boil through the opening rounds, bubbles began appearing in round five as both men landed hard but would not allow their poker faces to wilt.
Ever the showman, 'Canelo' was scolded in the sixth for throwing a hand behind his own back to connect with a holding Golovkin. It was never going to cause any damage but the crowd certainly appreciated it.
Golovkin continued to push the pace as we entered the second half of the contest and it was clearly in the 35-year-old's strategy to wear on the endurance of his thickly muscled opponent but one glance at the live feed of social media scores told you that nobody could say for certain who was in the lead at that point.
Then GGG stepped on the accelerator.
In the ninth, the fighters got up close and personal as they pressed their foreheads against one another and looked to rip hooks in at close range and Alvarez's most solid shot of the fight was eaten flush by the stubborn Golovkin, whose path forward would not be blocked.
Fighters' chins typically diminish as they get older but Golovkin's ability to take a punch from one of the hardest hitters in boxing was legitimately concerning at times as one wondered what it would take to put him down because a gloved hand obviously couldn't do it.
Having shown the effects of the pace for several rounds as he was reduced to potshotting, 'Canelo' came on strong in the final two but most knew what the result should have been.
https://twitter.com/HBOboxing/status/909266320692191232
Rather than prove that boxing was back in a big way, the fight will now just be the latest piece of evidence from detractors as to why the sport has the reputation it has.
Surprise, surprise. Talk of a rematch has already started and, being the fight capital of the world, Las Vegas will likely host the second meeting of Golovkin and Alvarez.
The millions of dollars that a rematch of that magnitude will bring to the city cannot be understated. That's all we're going to say.
We just hope that the judges assigned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission will pay closer attention to Golovkin vs. Alvarez II.Explore more on these topics: