Column: Canelo Alvarez’s victory confirms he needs to fight Gennady Golovkin again

Canelo Alvarez wanted to move on.

He tried to move on.

He couldn’t.

In case it wasn’t already obvious, his unanimous decision victory over Daniel Jacobs on Saturday night was confirmation of how the he remains inextricably linked to Gennady Golovkin.

As crafty an opponent as Jacobs proved to be, as tactically intriguing as the fight was, as electric as the atmosphere inside T-Mobile Arena was at times, the middleweight championship showdown failed to produce the tension or drama of Alvarez’s two confrontations with the power-punching Golovkin.

Already the middleweight champion of two sanctioning bodies, Alvarez claimed a third belt with his win over Jacobs. Alvarez has talked about wanting to become his division’s unified king, but a fight with the other so-called champion, Demetrius Andrade, would likely be a worse version of his scrap with Jacobs.

Alvarez is expected to fight again in September.

His opponent should be Golovkin.

Their initial encounter was declared a draw. Alvarez was awarded a decision in their rematch last September.

Asked in a post-fight interview if he still had unfinished business with Golovkin, Alvarez replied in Spanish, “For me, it’s over. But if the people want another fight, we’ll do it again and I’ll beat him again.”

Regardless of whether Alvarez wanted to acknowledge it, the reality was that Golovkin was an unavoidable presence in the buildup to the Jacobs fight.

Golovkin’s promoter, Tom Loeffler, acknowledged that Golovkin agreed to a contract with DAZN because it provided the clearest path to another fight with Alvarez, who also has a deal with the streaming service.

Golovkin, who should knock out the unknown, underwhelming and unbeaten Steve Rolls in June, was interviewed by DAZN on Saturday. Standing in the path Alvarez would later walk down on his way to the ring, Golovkin attracted a large crowd. The fans in the nearby stands stood up and raised their camera phones in his direction.

The spectators on the floor formed a mob by the barricade separating Golovkin from them. And when Golovkin was shown on the video scoreboard above the canvas, the pro-Alvarez crowd reacted with boos and whistles. The reaction was livelier than the one Jacobs received.

Whereas Alvarez and Jacobs were respectful of each other during the promotion of their fight, Alvarez and Golovkin share a genuine mutual animosity. Golovkin parted ways with provocateur trainer Abel Sanchez — he is now trained by Johnathan Banks — but his distaste of Alvarez remains. Over the last couple of weeks, Golovkin refused to make any predictions about Saturday night, probably because he didn’t want to do anything to help promote an Alvarez fight.

Alvarez was the boxer in his first fight and Golovkin the aggressor. They switched roles in the second. Both fights were spectacular.

But whereas Alvarez and Golovkin appear capable of creating only breathtaking sequences, Alvarez and Jacobs didn’t blend well. The chess match that unfolded over 12 rounds Saturday was no surprise, certainly not to Alvarez, who won on the official scorecards by scores of 115-113 (twice) and 116-112.

“It was just what we thought,” Alvarez said. “We knew he was going to be a difficult fighter.”

Alvarez and Jacobs started cautiously. In the first couple of rounds, Jacobs circled clockwise and flicked his jab, looking more to touch Alvarez with his lead hand than inflict actual damage.

When Alvarez started throwing his own jab, it was shorter, but considerably harder than Jacobs’. Alvarez appeared to win a close second round, which prompted Jacobs to experiment with fighting out of a southpaw stance. Alvarez continued to land the harder punches.

By the fourth round, the crowd was impatient with backtracking Jacobs, producing an ugly chorus of homophobic chants in Spanish that were directed at the cancer survivor.

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The shorter Alvarez started to close the distance in the fifth round, bobbing and weaving under Jacobs’ jabs. Alvarez appeared to be ahead by a wide margin at this point.

Jacobs reclaimed momentum in the sixth round, as he moved back into a southpaw stance. Jacobs looked as if he won that round, as well as the next, as he found a surprising amount of success moving forward with his dominant right hand as his lead hand.

Alvarez carved up Jacobs in the eighth round when they traded punches from close quarters.

But the best punch of the fight was landed by Jacobs, a left hook in the ninth round that turned Alvarez’s head. Alvarez appeared exhausted as he entered the so-called championship rounds and Jacobs dominated the 10th round.

But Alvarez outfought and outboxed Jacobs over the last two rounds. Alvarez won the final two rounds, as well as the fight, with precise punch placement. He won with superior defense. He won by remaining calm in the heat of battle.

The deal for this fight included a rematch clause in case Alvarez lost. He won’t have to exercise it. He’s free to take on Golovkin again.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com

Follow Dylan Hernandez on Twitter @dylanohernandez