Canelo Alvarez
Unified Champion! Canelo defeats Jacobs, offers up chance for Third GGG Fight
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez put on a show on Saturday night in front of a friendly Cinco de Mayo weekend crowd, defeating Daniel Jacobs by a narrow unanimous decision in a world middleweight title unification bout at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
A year ago, Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin fought to a controversial draw that many felt should have gone GGG’s way.
In the rematch, the two men again fought tooth and nail, throwing down until the final bell.
This time, Canelo took the majority decision win with scores of 115-113, 115-113, 114-114.
The fight was incredibly close the entire way. Virtually every round was a razor-thin affair that could have gone to either man.
For Golovkin, the story of the fight was his effective jab, and a late rally that saw him coming on strong in the closing rounds.
For Canelo, he was the more aggressive fighter here, coming towards Golovkin with pressure from the beginning, and using his trademark hooks to the body early.
Interestingly, the dynamic was different from both men’s normal roles, as it was Canelo the aggressor vs. Golovkin the backwards moving counter-puncher.
It was a gutsy strategy for Canelo, and it paid off.
With the win, Canelo elevates his record to 50-1-2, reclaiming his status as the soprt’s top Middleweight.
Golovkin suffers the first loss of his career, and is now 38-1-1. Considering how close this was, you have to wonder if Canelo vs. GGG 3 is something we will be seeing.
But for now, Canelo stands tall.
Cc: Sbnation