“That was solid” - Gennadiy Golovkin reacts to Dmitry Bivol beating Canelo Alvarez

Gennadiy Golovkin has congratulated Dmitry Bivol for beating pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez.

Bivol scored a massive win via unanimous decision against Alvarez to retain his WBA (Super) Light Heavyweight Title and remain undefeated. Golovkin, who was among Alvarez’s archrivals in the middleweight division, took to Twitter to praise the hard-hitting Russian champion for his latest conquest:

“Congratulations on your win @bivol_d! That was solid. Keep it up!”

Check out Gennadiy Golovkin’s tweet:

The 31-year-old champion retained his crown in stellar fashion, outlanding Alvarez in every single round. The Mexican star landed a career-low 84 punches overall while Bivol almost doubled it up with 154.

Despite the clear dominance of Bivol from the opening bell, all three judges scored it 115-113, the closest it could get without the fight going down as a draw.

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Gennadiy Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez III will have to wait

‘Cinnamon’ and ‘GGG’ were supposed to square off in a lucrative third meeting in September this year if Alvarez had won against Bivol like many were expecting. However, with the Guadalajara native incurring a shocking loss, a third fight against Golovkin will have to wait a little longer, especially with Canelo’s camp activating its rematch clause with Bivol.

Golovkin and Alvarez fought in 2017 and 2018 at middleweight. Their first meeting ended with a controversial split draw despite the Kazakhstani outlanding Alvarez in 10 of the 12 rounds according to Compubox punch stats.

The outcome of their heavily-contested first fight prompted a rematch—a thrilling back-and-forth bout that ended up being named as the 2018 Fight of the Year.

The fight was again not without controversy as Alvarez defeated Golovkin via majority decision after 12 rounds. Statistically, the fight was just as close as their first meeting. According to CompuBox, Alvarez landed 202 of 622 punches (33%), and Golovkin landed 234 of 879 (27%). Golovkin outlanded Alvarez in eight of the 12 rounds.

Golovkin is currently the WBA, IBF and IBO Middleweight Champion, something that will surely add more spice should the two meet once again in the future.

Check out the full fight highlights of Alvarez vs. Golovkin II: