LAS VEGAS –Forget all the insults, promises and allegations. The wait wasn’t a whole lot of fun. In the end, however, the fight made all of that waiting oh-so-forgettable.
Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin delivered the drama Saturday night before a rocking crowd of 21,965 at T-Mobile Arena throughout 12 pulsating rounds, each of which was hard to score, yet might eventually add up to a trilogy. For now, there’s bound to be controversy.
Canelo won a majority decision in the middleweight rematch of their controversial draw last September.
“That was a great fight’’ Canelo (50-1-2, 34 KOs) said after taking GGG’s championship belts and ending his claim on a record for title defenses in the HBO pay-per-view bout. “But in the end, it was a victory for Mexico. And again, it was an opportunity, and I want to shout out to my opponent, the best in the sport of boxing. I am a great fighter, and I showed it tonight.
“If the people want another round, I’ll do it again. But for right now, I will enjoy time with my family.’’
In boxing, of course, majority only means that not everybody agrees with the 115-113 scorecards turned in by judges Dave Moretti of Nevada and Steve Weisfeld of New Jersey. The third judge, Glenn Feldman of Connecticut, had a different opinion. He scored it, 114-114, a draw that might have been the very hard to accept after last September’s messy result.
On this card, it was 115-113 for Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs). Go ahead and argue. The fight was that close. The good news was that there was no wacky, bird-brain card like the 118-110 number for Canelo turned in by Adelaide Byrd a year ago.
Canelo’s aggressiveness over the first seven to eight rounds might have been enough to get the nod from Moretti and Weisfeld. He moved forward, ever forward. However, he often moved straight into a GGG jab that was as consistent as it was precise. It left him with a huge gash over his left eye.
That GGG jab and a Canelo pursuit that included some terrific body punches appeared to leave the bout even after eight rounds. The next three rounds were just about as even. The guess was that the twelfth would be decisive. At least, GGG trainer Abel Sanchez thought so.
“We had a great fight, the one we expected the first time around,’’ Sanchez said. “I had it close going into the 12th round. We had good judges who saw it from different angles. I can’t complain about the decision, but it’s close enough to warrant a third fight. Canelo fought a great fight. Congratulations.’’
GGG got cut over his right eye in the 12th. The blood fell like tears across the multiple bruises on his face as he left the ring. He didn’t stop to speak to the media in the immediate aftermath of the fight.
After arriving in his dressing room, he spoke to a media-relations representative, who relayed his quotes to press row.
“I’m not going to say who won,’’ GGG said. “The victory belongs to Canelo, according to the judges. I thought it was a very good fight for the fans. It was exciting. I thought I fought better than he did.’’
Then, he was asked about a third fight.
“Under the right circumstances,’’ GGG said.
The second fight has already put some those circumstances in place.
Mungia scores quick stoppage, leaving HBO with 90 minutes to fill before the GGG-Canelo rematch
Jamie Mungia kept himself in the mix for a middleweight title Saturday night with some of the raw power that has marked his emergence from unknown to dangerous.
Mungia (31-0, 26 KOs, of Tijuana, battered Canadian Brandon Cook (20-2, 13 KOs) around the ring like a young Antonio Margarito for two rounds and then finished him with a couple of rough-and-tumble knockdown in the third. Referee Tony Weeks finally ended at 1:03 of the third in another quick stoppage that left the HBO pay-per-view telecast with about 90 minutes of air time to fill before the Canelo Alavrez-Gennady Golovkin rematch at T-Mobile Arena.
“This was part of my development,” Mungia said. “I was not as focused in my last fight. But this time I came more relaxed. I was looking for the knockout too much. But now you’ve seen the results of my work. With each fight you will see me getting better. I just want to show that I can get better and that I want to face the best, so I can show that I am the best.”
Lemieux has one-punch answer for Spike O’Sullivan’s trash talk
The Face-offs were contentious. The fight was a blowout.
Canadian middleweight David Lemieux (40, 34 KOs) answered Gary O’Sullivan’s obscene trash talk with one punch — a sweeping left hook that
landed like a hammer at 2:44 of the first round. O’Sullivan (28-3, 20 KOs), of Ireland, calls himself Spike. Now we know why. He went down like one
Roman Gonzalez flashes old pound-for-pound skill in stoppage
He entered the T-Mobile Arena’s ring as former pound-for-pound champion. He left it after delivering powerful reminder as to why he was one.
Roman Gonzalez (47-2, 39 KOs), still the sports best little guy since the Michael Carbajal-Chiquita Gonzalez era, opened HBO’s pay-per-view telecast of the Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin rematch with a dramatic fifth round stoppage of Mexican Moises Fuentes (25-6-1, 14 KOs) in a super-flyweight bout.
Gonzalez bloodied Fuentes right eye in the second. In the third and fourth, he landed quick punches, alternating his attack from body-to-head. At 1:44 of the fifth, he caught Fuentes with left, then a right. Fuentes was unconscious the moment the right landed. The Mexican fell, eyes still open, onto than and flat on to his back. A concerned Gonzalez rushed over to see if he was okay. When Fuentes woke up and looked up, that he just been dropped by a guy who still has a pound-for-pound skillset.
Dallas junior-welterweight Vergil Ortiz (11-0, 11 KOs), one of boxing’s best young prospects, was everything he was supposed to be, delivering speed and power for a second-round demolition of Roberto Ortiz (35-3-2, 26 KOs) of Mexico. In the final bout before the HBO pay-per-view telecast of the Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez card, Vergil Ortiz dropped Roberto with a right early in the second. Moments later, he landed a blinding succession of punches. Referee Vic Drakulich had seen enough. At 1:03 of the second, he ended it.
Alexis Rocha stays unbeaten with one-sided decision
Alexis Rocha, a super-welterweight from Santa Ana, Calif., did some damage early, then scored some easy points and finished still unbeaten in the third bout on the non- televised portion of the Canelo-GGG card.
Rocha (12-0, 8 KOs) opened a nasty cut above Carlos Ortiz right eye in the opening round. Whatever chance Ortiz (10-3, 10 KOs) had before the cut appeared to washing away in the steady drip of blood over the next seven rounds. Rocha won a one-sided (80-72 on two cards and 79-73 on the third) decision.
Jaba Khositashvili scores head-rocking decision
Philadelphia super-middleweight Jaba Khositashvili (4-0, 2 KOs) had too much head-rocking power in both hands for Lawrence King (4-1, 3 KOs), a San Bernardino, Calif., who had guts but not much of anything else. Khositashvili’s big shots repeatedly hurt King, who from round to round stumbled across the canvas. King survived, but Khositashvili got the decision, unanimous on all three cards.
First Bell: Canelo-Golovkin card off to an early start and fast finish
It was an early start and a quick finish.
New York welterweight Brian Ceballo (5-0, 3 KOs) wasted little time, finishing an afternoon matinee within two rounds after the first bell Saturday on a card featuring the Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez rematch at T-Mobile Arena.
Ceballo knocked down David Thomas (6-4-1, 2 KOs) of Orange, Tex., in the first. In the opening seconds of the second, Thomas was defenseless, hands down and a wide-open target for a succession of straight hands from Ceballo. At 34 seconds of the round, referee Jay Nady ended it.
