Once again, Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin's matchup was left up to the decision of the judges.
A year after their first fight came to a draw, Alvarez and Golovkin went for 12 straight rounds before Canelo earned a victory in the eyes of officials in a narrow decision with one judge scoring it an even 11-14, while the other two favored Alvarez with scores of 115-113 each.
"I showed my victory with facts," Alvarez said. "He was the one who was backing up. I feel satisfied because I gave a great fight. It was a clear victory."
While the two men failed to deliver on the knockout they each promised to deliver, falling short of the classic this fight had all the potential to be, it certainly wasn't a boring one with both fighters meeting each other with the same intensity as the first making another draw a not-so-distant possibility.
"We had a great fight, the one we expected the first time around," said Golovkin's trainer Abel Sanchez. "I had hit close going into the 12th round. We had good judges who saw it from different angles. I can't complain about the decision but it's close enough to warrant a third fight. Canelo fought a great fight."
The rematch was originally staged for May earlier in the year before Alvarez tested positive for the performance-enhancing substance Clenbuterol, which he claims was the result of eating spoiled meat. Nonetheless, a suspension soon followed, allotting plenty f time for tensions to boil, which could very well explain how both men met each other with equal amounts of fervor.