Canelo Álvarez Vs. Gennady Golovkin III

Canelo Álvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin III, billed as ''The Trilogy'', was a professional boxing match contested on September 17, 2022, for the undisputed super middleweight championship.

Background

After knocking out Amir Khan back in 2016, Álvarez vacated his WBC middleweight title, with Golovkin subsequently being awarded it. Some critics labelled a Álvarez 'a duck' for doing so, believing the Mexican was attempting to 'age out' Golovkin as much as possible. However, Álvarez's promoter, Oscar De la Hoya, accused Golovkin's team of dismissing a career high $10 million guarantee along with a share of pay per view profits. In September 2017, the pair finally fought, and despite Golovkin outlanding Álvarez in 10 of the 12 rounds according to CompuBox, the fight ended in a controversial split draw. Adalaide Byrd's scorecard of 118–110 for Álvarez received a large amount of criticism. Many purists believed Golovkin had done enough to get the decision over Álvarez, and called the fight a 'robbery'.

The controversial outcome led to a rematch taking place, and in September 2018, Álvarez defeated Golovkin via majority decision. However, although not as much as the first fight, there were still claims of a robbery, with people believing that Golovkin had beaten Álvarez twice. There were calls for a third fight, which took time to take place.

Álvarez then unified with IBF middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs and became a four-division world champion with a knockout win over WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev, before becoming an undisputed world champion at super middleweight. Golovkin reclaimed his IBF title with a controversial decision win over Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Despite stating his willingness to face Derevyachenko in a rematch, GGG ultimately never pursued it and remained inactive for over a year before defending his title against mandatory challenger Kamil Szeremeta. In 2022, he unified the division against Ryōta Murata in Japan. On February 25, 2022, it was announced that Álvarez had signed a two-fight deal with Matchroom Boxing. The first fight of the deal would see Álvarez returning to light heavyweight to face WBA (Super) light heavyweight champion, Dmitry Bivol, before returning to super middleweight to face Golovkin. On May 7, Álvarez was defeated by Bivol via unanimous decision. Despite claiming he would activate his rematch clause and face Bivol again, it was announced on May 24 that Álvarez and Golovkin would fight a third time, five years after their first fight, live on DAZN, with Golovkin moving weight divisions for the first time in his career to do so.

On the fight night, Álvarez defeated Golovkin via unanimous decision with the scores of 115–113 (twice) and 116–112. The fight proved to be the most lopsided as well as tactical in their rivalry with Canelo easily controlling most of the rounds. The scorecards generated controversy once again, this time with most believing they were too favorable for Golovkin.

Aftermath

On 8 February 2023, Golovkin vacated the IBF title after being ordered to face mandatory challenger Esquiva Falcão. On 9 March, he relinquished the WBA title after being ordered to face Regular champion Erislandy Lara. On 14 June Golovkin vacated his IBO world title, IBO President Ed Levine announced.

Fight card

Confirmed bouts:

Broadcasting

The bout was broadcast live by sports streaming service DAZN to existing subscribers worldwide excluding Latin America. The bout was broadcast on pay-per-view in the United States and Canada.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Álvarez, Golovkin III
2022 in boxing
2022 in sports in Nevada
September 2022 sports events in the United States
Boxing matches at T-Mobile Arena
Golovkin III
Álvarez III
Boxing matches promoted by Matchroom Sport
Boxing on DAZN
Boxing on ESPN
Pay-per-view boxing matches
Super middleweight championship matches