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.
Read about the fight here
Read about the fight here
On May 2, 2009, Stockport-born Ricky ‘The Hitman’ Hatton made the third defence of his IBO light welterweight title against Filipino Manny ‘Pac-Man’ Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas. In the opening round Hatton attempted to tie up Pacquiao and fight close in, but was caught with a powerful right hook after the first minute or so and another after two minutes, which knocked him down. Hatton survived, but towards the end of the round was in trouble again, felled by a straight left.
Although apparently still feeling the effects of his second knockdown, Hatton, once again, started the second round positively, landing one or two decent punches. However, Pacquiao responded by landing several powerful headshots of his own. Finally, with less than ten seconds of the round remaining, Pacquiao delivered the coup de grace, a perfect left hook that caught Hatton flush on the jaw and knocked him clean out.
Hatton lay motionless in the centre of the ring, with referee Kenny Bayliss waving to signal the end of the contest. Attended by ringside medical staff, Hatton took some time to regain consciousness, but was eventually pictured sitting up, much to the relief of everyone concerned. Officially, Pacquiao won by knockout after 2:59 of round two and, in so doing, confirmed his status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Hatton announced his retirement from boxing in 2011, having never fought again; he returned to the ring, once, in 2012, but retired for good shortly afterwards.