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Gennady Golovkin, Canelo Alvarez
 

After last month's Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor spectacle, promoters for Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez hyped their middleweight championship bout as "the real fight."

Real fight fans agreed.

Both events were at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and GGG-Canelo crushed Mayweather-McGregor in attendance, a sellout of 22,358 to 14,623. To be fair, Mayweather-McGregor had the bigger live gate because its ticket prices were higher. But that just shows how it was appealing to high rollers intrigued by the curiosity of a 40-year-old coming out of retirement to duel a UFC personality, with both fighters using their flamboyant personalities -- and rather politically incorrect vernacular featuring homophobia and racism -- as a selling point.

GGG-Canelo was refreshingly the opposite. It featured little trash talk -- imagine if Tim Duncan's San Antonio Spurs were to take on Sidney Crosby's Pittsburgh Penguins -- and delivered dynamic action.

Neither Golovkin nor Alvarez is comfortable speaking English. Alvarez, who grew up on a farm in Mexico, used an interpreter for most media functions. English is the fourth language for Golovkin, who was born in Kazakhstan, the former Soviet republic, where he grew up learning Kazakh and Russian. He moved to Germany in 2006 when he was 24, and then in 2014 to California, where he lives in Los Angeles and trains at Big Bear Lake.

But their limited English might not even matter because of who they are as people, with both speaking fluently in the language of respect.

Remember in March, when Canelo beat Julio César Chavez Jr., Golovkin entered the ring (after a Kazakhstan flag appeared and a GGG pump-up video was played). The two then announced they would fight each other in September, doling out an array of handshakes. Golovkin said Canelo would be the toughest opponent of his career. Canelo said he was born without fear, but would not criticize Golovkin, instead calling him, "my friend."


The next six months featured much of the same. Promoter Oscar De La Hoya complimented the "teamwork" of both men to get the fight done. They raved about each other's abilities while promoting their own confidence, mostly steering clear of direct criticism. Even at the weigh-in, a reporter tried to trigger Golovkin, saying that Canelo had called him a "fake champion." 

Golovkin's answer: "See you tomorrow."

For 12 rounds, the best thing that could have happened to boxing happened. Golovkin and Canelo went the distance, as the fight teetered back and forth and engaged the audience in the arena, watching on pay-per-view and following on Twitter. 

Let's be honest, boxing for the past five years (since Manny Pacquiao lost to Timothy Bradley) has been Mayweather and then everybody else. For about an hour Saturday night, boxing proved the competition could sell itself again. Golovkin-Canelo was nonstop action between two artists.

The final result was obviously unfulfilling. Whether you had Golovkin winning by a little, Canelo winning by a little or a draw, you probably didn't score it 118-110 for Alvarez, as judge Adalaide Byrd did.

Gennady Golovkin, Canelo Alvarez

But if there is any consolation to the botched judging, it's that we will likely see a rematch. Both men think they won and see each other as their most legitimate competition. In a totally unoriginal opinion, let's point to Dallas on Cinco de Mayo as the obvious setting for Golovkin-Canelo II.

GGG and Canelo's camps will get at least one more chance to promote this matchup. Given the record attendance and terrific in-ring product, they should double-down on the "real fight" angle. These are the men who give boxing a future. Most of what young fans know about boxing is the trash talking and showiness. Golovkin and Canelo provide boxing content. Matchups like this are why boxing became a popular sport in the first place.

Boxing can't survive as a PR agency. It is a sport and Golovkin-Canelo reminded fans of the sport's roots. Water those roots and let them sprout.

Also, they should look into whether a network would be interested in paying the right amount to put this fight on national TV and let even more fans have access to it.

The atmosphere was electric all weekend in Las Vegas. Mexican fans -- supporting both Canelo and Golovkin -- made their presence felt. Promoters lined the Strip with sponsors. I even got to dress up as a boxing champion, thanks to Chivas Flight Club, one of GGG's partners.

Despite the judging of Byrd, who has essentially been suspended, GGG-Canelo was an awesome fight, and the upside is that we should get to do it again. So, let's get excited for that and appreciate how real fans can see the difference between a boxing match and a reality show.

-- Follow Jeff Eisenband on Twitter @JeffEisenband. Like Jeff Eisenband on Facebook.