Golovkin: I Don’t Feel I Lost The Fight; Especially In 2nd Half, I Felt I Was Better Than Canelo

LAS VEGAS – Gennadiy Golovkin did not contest his unanimous decision loss to Canelo Alvarez.

Unlike the results of his two 12-round middleweight title fights, Golovkin seemed more accepting of Alvarez’s victory in their third fight Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena. However, the Kazakhstan native stated during his post-fight press conference that he did enough to beat Alvarez in their 12-round, 168-pound championship bout.

“I don’t feel like I lost the fight,” Golovkin said, according to his translator. “I don’t think about the loss. It’s not something that I like at the moment because it was a great fight and it was a very clean fight, as you noted. And we do not allow any mistakes. And the fight was very competitive. And especially in the second half, I felt that I was better than my opponent.”

Golovkin, 40, got off to an extremely slow start against Alvarez but was successful in the ninth, 10th and 11th rounds.

In complete contrast to their first two meetings, all three judges — Dave Moretti (116-112), David Sutherland (115-113) and Steve Weisfeld (115-113) — gave Golovkin more rounds than he appeared to win. Had Sutherland and Weisfeld each scored one more round for Golovkin, a fight that Alvarez appeared to win decisively would have resulted in a majority draw.

“It’s not up to me to talk about scoring,” Golovkin said. “I just did my job and the judges got those scores. That is your decision.”

Golovkin believes he won his first two fights.

Their initial meeting resulted in a controversial split draw five years ago. Judge Adalaide Byrd infamously scored what was a very competitive 118-110 12-rounder for Alvarez, who won 10 rounds on her undercard in September 2017.

Álvarez (58-2-2, 39 KOs) won their 12-round rematch by majority decision a year later. Despite the closeness on the cards Saturday night, Alvarez’s victory was clearer in his third fight than his victory in the rematch.

Though Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs) looked less effective Saturday night than he had during his first 24 rounds, he didn’t feel much difference in the 32-year-old Alvarez, who won world titles in two higher weight classes after his revenge.

“I don’t want to disparage his victory, but at the same time, I didn’t feel like he was faster or stronger,” Golovkin said. “The shots that [landed] they were not strong enough. And in the second half, he even lost speed and power. And I think even in the beginning, we didn’t fight much, the two of us. It can be seen that the number of shots taken was lower in the second half. But then again, I would say there are no surprises for me at all.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.