Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (58-2-2, 39 KOs), the unified super middleweight champion from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, definitively defeated his one-time nemesis, multi-belt middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs), from Karaganda, Kazakhstan, in the final fight of their trilogy.

 

The final scores were 116-112 and 115-113 after 12 one-sided rounds in favor of Canelo. There were few surprises. There were no knockdowns or knockouts, a trend in the trilogy, yet a testament to both men's resilience. The judges may have erred on the side of B-side of the promotion, but Canelo, unlike Golovkin, didn’t need their help.

 

Golovkin fought as well as can be expected at this point in his career. He remains an elite fighter, if not an indispensable one. Still, he’s the reigning middleweight champion, ready to take on all comers at his natural weight. But Triple G is 40. All things being equal, he’s an old man in a young man’s sport. Despite hope to the contrary, he’s not Archie Moore, George Foreman, or Bernard Hopkins, who appeared ageless before they didn’t. Golovkin has lost a step. His reflexes are not what they were. But he is dangerous, if power is the last thing to go. He can still produce drama, as he did in the later rounds against Canelo. But it’s a small show now instead of a big one.

            

Canelo fought his fight. Memory of his loss to Bivol four months ago seems to have evaporated overnight. The army of haters who targeted Canelo is mostly quiet for the moment. But it won’t last. There’s plenty out there to hate, almost as much as there is to love, and Canelo’s successor, whoever is the chosen recipient of fans’ hate, can learn from the champ: how to rise above it, get on with business, and mute the noise…

 

But before the silence becomes deafening, let’s hear what Canelo’s former promoter, the irrepressible Oscar De La Hoya, thought about the Canelo-Golovkin 3.

 

“The truth is everyone is afraid of speaking the truth,” Oscar tweeted. “The fight was a f*cking dud. GGG was old ass [sic] f*ck and Canelo can’t hold Hopkins’ jockstrap.” 

 

Bernard Hopkins thanks you. Larry Holmes thanks you. Rocky Marciano thanks you.