Gennady Golovkin took a mystery phone call in the ring immediately following his loss to Canelo Alvarez in their trilogy fight last night.
The boxing legend was thoroughly beaten over 12 rounds by his long-time rival Alvarez at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, leaving their feud behind in the aftermath of 108 minutes shared in the ring together. But fans were shocked to see him smiling on his phone chatting to someone in the midst of the post-fight chaos.
Golovkin appeared to be laughing as he spoke to an as-yet unnamed person on the phone during an hectic scene as the scores were read, with Alvarez winning on every scorecard. He has not explained to whom he was speaking, and was not asked about it in his post-fight press conference.
According to media reports in his native Kazakhstan, Golovkin was called by president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, although whether or not he was the person on the other end of the in-ring phone conversation is unclear. He is believed to have told the fighter “For the fans, you were and will remain the national champion and the best in the world. We are proud of you."
While the judges' scorecards painted a picture of a fight that was just one round away from being another draw, the bout itself was in fact much more one-sided. Golovkin was not surprised at all when Alvarez was announced as the winner, and soon after was smiling in the ring.
"Everybody knows at this level it's high-level class," Golovkin said in the ring after the fight. "The best fight for boxing, everybody knows who Canelo is, everybody knows if you lose one punch he can finish the fight. Look at his face and look at my face, it's so clean because this is high-level - we trained well and this shows we had a very good quality fight as a result.
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"This fight was very smart, very tactical like chess. Today, Canelo is better. It was strategic, in the second half I felt not bad, it was a good fight. 100 per cent [the rivalry is over]. All top fighters, top players like LeBron and Kobe have competed. I have a great plan with a lot of opponents.
"But today, congratulations to all boxing fans, remember I have three belts at 160lb, I'll come back, I'm still champion. I want to shake hands with Canelo and his whole team and I hope you understand he's a real warrior. If you don't understand, you don't understand nothing."
Alvarez is now expected to take an extended period away from the ring after injuring his hand over his last few fights, before eventually attempting to secure a rematch at light-heavyweight with Dmitry Bivol. Meanwhile, Golovkin will likely drop back down and defend his world titles at middleweight, although some fans believe it may be time for him to retire at the age of 40.
