Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez settles trilogy with unanimous points win over Gennady Golovkin

If there was plenty of controversy surrounding the first two fights, there was no disputing the third.

Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez retained his undisputed super-middleweight champion status with a points victory over Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin in Las Vegas on Sunday morning, and in the process, settled one of the most defining rivalries in modern-day boxing.

Roared on by the vast majority of the crowd inside the T-Mobile Arena, Alvarez controlled much of the fight from start to finish, landing freely and beating a slow and sluggish-looking Golovkin to the punch at almost every opportunity. The 40-year-old Golovkin had his moments, particularly in the ninth round and came on stronger towards the end of the fight, but Alvarez aways looked in control.

Despite finding his target with several crushing blows, Alvarez was unable to close out the bout inside the distance against an opponent famed for his granite chin, but this time there would be no debating the judges' scorecards, even if two of the scores were debatably close: Alvarez claimed the victory 116-112, 115-113, 115-113.

It was the perfect response from the 32-year-old Alvarez, who lost for just the second time in his distinguished career last time out when he made an audacious step up to light-heavyweight to face WBA champion Dimitri Bivol. The undefeated Russian is next in action against Gilberto 'Zurdo' Ramirez in Abu Dhabi in November.

The Mexican and his Kazakh rival first fought in September 2017, at middleweight, in one of the greatest fights in living memory, which ended in a disputed split draw. The second bout, 12 months later, was equalling thrilling and went the way of Alvarez by the narrowest of majority points decisions.

Four years later, this grudge match was