“I think towards the end of the fight I obviously started to get a bit fatigued and that’s because we’ve not been able to work explosively in the gym. But despite all the problems that we’ve had, I was really happy with my performance tonight,” he added.
“I wanted to get that KO but it didn’t come because he’s a great fighter. That’s why there are 12 rounds in a fight. So you can show and display who’s the best. So I’m really happy with what I’ve done tonight.”
He made it plain that he wants to face Dmitry Bivol again, the WBA light-heavyweight champion who defeated Saul Alvarez earlier this year.
But first, he needs to rest.
“I’m going to take my time. My body needs [it]. Last year I fought four times in 11 months so that’s why. I need to take my time a little bit maybe. May, September, I don’t know. But I need to take my time,” Alvarez said.
“Our competition is over”
Golovkin has also put an end to the bitter rivalry that he and Alvarez had for five years and three fights.
“He was the one who said it was personal. My response to that was why has he waited so many years for this fight to happen,” the Kazakh said.
“But after the fight when we looked each other in the eye we had no claims towards each other any more. We congratulated each other, we said excellent fight and we moved on. Because we realised at this level this sport is so dangerous and we were very content with how this fight played out and our rivalry ended.”
Golovkin is still the undisputed WBA and IBF middleweight champion despite losing this match to Alvarez at super-middleweight.
“I still have this fire burning within me, I have this passion for boxing,” Golovkin said.
