By Keith Idec
LAS VEGAS – Gennady Golovkin repeatedly congratulated Canelo Alvarez for his performance Saturday night.
The former middleweight champion commended the Mexican superstar for fighting him more than Alvarez did during their first meeting a year ago. He still doesn’t believe Alvarez, who beat him by majority decision, did enough to win their 12-round rematch at T-Mobile Arena.
“I felt very comfortable,” Golovkin said through his translator during the post-fight press conference. “I think we controlled the fight, all the jabs. Even though he was not running this time, it doesn’t mean he was controlling the fight. We were controlling the fight.”
Two of the judges disagreed with Golovkin’s take on their extremely competitive, compelling rematch.
Dave Moretti and Steve Weisfeld both scored their second clash 115-113 for Alvarez, who won the WBA, WBC and IBO middleweight titles from Golovkin. The other judge, Glenn Feldman, scored their rematch a draw (114-114).
“I don’t think he really demonstrated some super, great Mexican boxing style,” Golovkin said. “Yes, he was not running away from me, was not running around this time. But it doesn’t mean that he won this fight. He didn’t do anything special. But most importantly, I would like to congratulate him [for] today’s win.”
The 28-year-old Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KOs) didn’t move nearly as much in this rematch as he did during their first fight, which resulted in a controversial draw. He was aggressive and often brought the fight to Kazakhstan’s Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs), who landed more overall punches according to unofficial CompuBox statistics (234-of-879 to 202-of-622).
“We can talk about a lot of things,” Golovkin said. “But again, I want to congratulate Canelo. I feel like I’m a champion, but he also is a champion. So it was a fight of two champions tonight.”
While the 36-year-old Golovkin feels he did enough to remain unbeaten, he refrained from criticizing the judges.
“I’m just a fighter,” Golovkin said. “I’m doing my job and how to judge my performance, my work, is not my job. As a fighter, I’m just doing my job inside the ring.”
2023-10-21 20:35:50
