After stepping on the scales, Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin locked eyes for the third—and possibly final—time.
Alvarez and Golovkin were both surrounded by cheery people Friday outside T-Mobile Arena on The Strip, where they will face off Saturday (8 p.m. ET, DAZN PPV) in a trilogy battle for the undisputed super middleweight belt.
Following an unexpected loss to Dmitry Bivol in May when he competed for a 175-pound belt, Alvarez (57-2-2, 39 KOs) returns to 168 pounds, where he retains all four titles. The 32-year-old is ranked as the fifth-best fighter overall by ESPN.
Alvarez, who was enthusiastically applauded by a sizable group there for Mexico’s Independence Day weekend, stated, “I want to finish it inside 12 rounds and I’ll be looking for it from the first round.” “I know it won’t be easy, he’s a superb boxer,” you say.
After a storied middleweight career in which he still owns two 160-pound titles, Golovkin, 40, will make his 168-pound debut.
Golovkin, a Kazakhstani Olympic silver medalist, remarked “If you’re genuinely a boxing fan, you know who’s the actual champion.”
In a contentious all-action fight in September 2017, Alvarez and Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) battled to a draw. After the bout, Golovkin was resolute in his conviction that he had prevailed.
Alvarez prevailed in the rematch by majority decision a year later, although the result was far from convincing.
They’ll finally cross paths again four years later, likely bringing an epic boxing trilogy to a close.
Regarding the undercard, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, the front-runner for Fighter of the Year, weighed 114.8 pounds before making his first junior bantamweight title defence.
Israel Gonzalez, his rival, weighed 114.6 pounds.
Rodriguez, 22, has had a breakout year with two stoppage wins over former champions Carlos Cuadras and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (16-0, 11 KOs).
Gonzalez (28-4-1, 11 KOs) is well known for his competitive loss to Roman Gonzalez (future Hall of Famer) in 2020.