Great fight until one judge spoiled it. Again

THEY fought toe-to-toe. Almost. There was no doubt about that. Gennady Golovkin was the aggressor almost all throughout. No doubt about that, too.

But why there was no knockout, it is not difficult to comprehend.

And why there wasn’t a single knockdown in the 12-round fight, it is the easiest to explain as well.

Both fighters are indeed skillful defensively and offensively as well.

Now I know why Golovkin is unbeaten in 37 fights before he faced Alvarez on Sunday in that classy clash in Las Vegas.

He can defend as well as fire powerful shots with almost clockwork precision.

Same with Alvarez, whose 49-1 mark before the bout reverberated resoundingly in the 12 rounds that he had engaged the best knockout artist of his generation.

Golovkin, the power punching middleweight champ from Kazakhstan boasting of 33 knockouts, threw all he could.

But simply, one big shot after another could not crush Alvarez, who came armed to the teeth himself.

Alvarez showed exceptional defense. Although he was backing down most of the time, he was elusive and deftly avoided big shots in the middle rounds.

Yes, there appeared to be several blows to the face of Alvarez that would have been enough to floor foes of lesser stuff.

In Alvarez’s case, however, he reduced Golovkin to unloading mere powder-soft punches. Hardly had he staggered Alvarez, nor connected with knee-wobbling hits.

But Golovkin himself proved tough against Alvarez despite his being eight years the senior of the 27-year-old Mexican Mauler.

None of Alvarez’s power punches that had previously knocked out 34 foes could also jar Golovkin even a bit.

Action-packed was the fight and Golovkin should be credited for that. He was always on attack mode, with Alvarez practically defending and actually busied himself with counter-punching.

It was only in the last three rounds that Alvarez, told by his corner he was behind, woke up and, luckily with new-found aggression, he salvaged a split draw.

I saw Golovkin the 115-113 winner like the score of one of the three judges. The second judge saw it a 114-114 draw. Fine by me.

But how another judge could give Alvarez a 118-110 victory, giving him all but two rounds, was easily boxing’s aberration of the year.

That was actually the story of the night.