Canelo Alvarez beats rival Gennady Golovkin by unanimous decision to end trilogy

After 36 rounds together in the ring over the past five years, Canelo Alvarez finally put a convincing finish on his remarkable trilogy with Gennady Golovkin.

The Mexican superstar decisively won his third ring meeting with Gennady Golovkin on Saturday night, earning a unanimous-decision victory and clear superiority in their rivalry.

Four years after the fighters' most recent meeting ended in a narrow, disputed victory for Alvarez (58-2-2, 39 KOs), the four-division world champion left little doubt about this verdict — even though he won by just 115-113 on two judges' scorecards, with the third seeing it 116-112.

Even with an injured left hand that he says will require surgery, the 32-year-old Alvarez delivered a comprehensive pummeling of the now-40-year-old Golovkin (42-2-1) in the first eight rounds, repeatedly testing Triple G's famed chin with combinations and overhand rights. Golovkin rallied late, but ran out of time.

Golovkin started far too slowly with no clear strategy to take the initiative away from Alvarez. Fighting at 168 pounds for the first time in his career, the Kazakh middleweight star still had moments of his dynamic best in the later rounds against a wearier Canelo, but they weren't enough to turn the bout against a younger opponent more comfortable at super middleweight, where he reigns as the undisputed champion.

"Everybody knows this is high level, the best fight for boxing," Golovkin said. "Look at his face. Look at my face. It's high level, because we trained well, and this is shows that we did a very good fight, very good quality."

The bitter rivals embraced and spoke warmly to each other after the final bell, perhaps signaling a thaw in their frosty relationship.

Canelo and GGG embrace in the