“If the people want us to do it again, let’s do it again,” said Álvarez, who won a majority decision; their first match was a draw.
LAS VEGAS — The fight was so close at the final bell that no one at T-Mobile Arena — including Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Álvarez — knew who would leave the ring with the middleweight title belts.
It was Álvarez, though by the slimmest of margins. He won the last round on two scorecards Saturday night on the Strip to gain a majority decision and hand Golovkin his first loss in a fight that more than lived up to its billing.
To settle who is really the best, though, they may just have to do it a third time. And that’s fine with both boxers, who have gone 24 rounds together with little but a few points on the scorecards to separate them.
“If the people want us to do it again, let’s do it again,” Álvarez said.
Golovkin said, “It would be great to have a third fight.”
A third fight will almost certainly happen. Alvarez, 28, and Golovkin, 36, showcased their skills — and their sport — at the highest level in a 12-round fight that one judge scored a draw and two others each had Alvarez by a 115-113 score.
Both fighters thought they had won. Both fighters probably deserved a win.
But it was Álvarez, a Mexican hero, who carried the belts out of the ring after a bout that ended with both fighters bloodied and bruised before a roaring crowd of 21,965.
“It’s one of the happiest days of my life,” said Álvarez, who fought Golovkin to a draw a year earlier and had to deal with a positive test for a performance-enhancing drug while preparing for the rematch.
It was not so happy for Golovkin, a slugger from Kazakhstan who for years tore through whoever was put in front of him. Golovkin rallied in the final rounds to make the fight close, only to listen in disbelief once again as he was not declared the winner.
“I feel like I’m a champion, but he’s also a champion,” Golovkin said. “It was a fight of two champions tonight.”
Indeed it was, as Álvarez abandoned his strategy from the first fight to box moving forward. It was a risky strategy but it just barely paid off.
Though Golovkin and his handlers were careful not to criticize the decision, the promoter Tom Loeffler said later that it was tough to win a decision at an arena packed with Álvarez fans on Mexican Independence Day weekend.
“I don’t know if we can win a decision in Las Vegas,” Loeffler said.
Ringside punch statistics showed a close fight: Golovkin was credited with landing 234 of 879 punches; Álvarez landed 203 of 622.
Unlike many close decisions in boxing, though, there was no huge outcry, largely because the fight seemed too close to call.
“It was me who pushed him back, me who was most aggressive,” Álvarez said through an interpreter. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get the knockout but we got the victory.”
Álvarez said before the fight that he was angry with Golovkin over his belief that Álvarez was juiced for their first fight, and would try to knock him out. But few believed he would be the aggressor in a fight against a boxer with big power in both hands.
He was just that, though, in a spirited fight that had no knockdowns. Álvarez controlled the middle rounds as Golovkin seemed to tire, but Golovkin fans thought their fighter pulled it out late.
Álvarez said afterward that he wanted to fight again in December, and could against David Lemieux, a Canadian who scored a first-round knockout over Gary O’Sullivan of Ireland on the undercard. With the lure of big money in a third fight with Golovkin, the two could meet again in May for a trilogy that is rare in boxing these days.
For now, Álvarez can celebrate his biggest win at a crucial time in his career as he tries to cement his status as a storied Mexican boxing great.
“It’s very important for me to have a victory for my country,” he said. “This victory will give a lot of pride to my country.”
