Canelo Alvarez of Mexico defeated Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico on Saturday (Sunday in Australia) to become the new world middleweight champion at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Alvarez won via a 12-round unanimous decision victory with the judges’ scorecards reflecting a one-sided affair; 118-110, 119-109 and 117-111 all for the Mexican.

However, various boxing analysts and experts saw the fight closer than what the judges saw. Dan Rafael of ESPN and Bryan Graham of The Guardian scored it 115-113 for Alvarez, Mike Sloan of sherdog.com scored it 114-114 for a draw and the Associated Press scored it 116-112.

What was clear however was that Alvarez nailed what was perhaps the biggest win in his career. At 25 years old, Alvarez has now won two world titles—in the super welterweight and middleweight divisions—in his career and is set to become one of the biggest superstars of the sport.

"I was fully prepared for what Cotto was going to do in the ring, whether that was take a defence stance or be the aggressor,” Alvarez said in the post-fight interview where he stated many times that he respects Cotto and that the Puerto Rican was a “great champion.”

Alvarez declared as well that “now it’s my era” and that he’s ready to fight Kazakhstan's Gennady Golovkin, who is also being touted as one of the faces of boxing with Floyd Mayweather Jr. retiring last September.

"I'm not afraid of any fighter. GGG [Golovkin] is a great fighter, and he is my friend. I have respect for him, but if we do fight it's going to be at my weight class. I'm the champion. I don't have to do what he wants.” Alvarez added. "With all due respect, if he wants to fight right now, I'll put the gloves on and fight him."

Oscar De La Hoya, the head of Golden Boy Promotions, which handles Alvarez’s fights, promised an action-packed affair before the Canelo-Cotto match-up. Both the Mexican and Puerto Rican delivered and was lauded post-fight for an exciting match-up unlike the snoozer that was the “Fight of the Century” between Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather Jr. last May.

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