On September 16, 2017, at the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, reigning unified WBA (Super), WBC, IBF middleweight champion Gennaday ‘GGG’ Golovkin put his titles on the line against ‘The Ring’ middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in front of a sellout crowd of 22,358. Heading into the fight, billed as ‘Supremacy’, Golovkin was defending a perfect 37-0-0 record, including 33 knockouts, while Alvarez had a record of 49-1-1, including 34 knockouts, with his only defeatcoming four years earlier, at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jnr..
Unsurprisingly, the bout was highly anticipated and attracted 1.3 pay-per-view buys. After a tactical start, during which Alvarez fared best, Golovkin took over in the middle rounds but, with both fighters delivering tremendous power shots, few rounds were clear-cut, one way or the other. Indeed, in the closing stages, the crowd rose to its feet to cheer a classic encounter, in which both men everything they had. The result went to the judges and while the first two, Dave Moretti and Don Trella, scored the fight 115-13 in favour of Golovkin and 114-114, respectively, the third, Adalaide Byrd, scored it 118-110 in favour of Alvarez. Byrd was pilloried for her egregious scorecard, but the result remained a controversial draw, by split decision.