LAS VEGAS — The fight was so close at the final bell that no one in the arena – including Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez – knew who would leave with the middleweight title belts.

It was Alvarez, by the slimmest of margins. He won the last round on two scorecards Saturday night on the Las Vegas Strip to hand Golovkin the first loss of his career in a fight that more than lived up to its billing.

But to settle who’s really the best, they may have to do it a third time. And that’s fine with both fighters, who have gone 24 rounds together with little but a few points on the scorecards to separate them.

“If the people want us to do it again, let’s do it again,” Alvarez said.

“It would be great to have a third fight,” Golovkin said.

A third fight almost certainly will happen, and for that, fans have to be grateful. Alvarez and Golovkin showcased their skills – and their sport – at the highest level in a fight one judge scored a draw, while two others had Alvarez by a narrow 115-113 score.

Both fighters thought they won. Both likely deserved a win.

But it was Alvarez, the Mexican hero, who proudly carried the belts out of the ring after 12 rounds that ended with both fighters bloodied and bruised before a roaring crowd of 21,965.

“It’s one of the happiest days of my life,” said Alvarez, who fought Golovkin to a draw a year earlier and had to deal with a positive test for a performance- enhancing drug while preparing for the rematch.

It wasn’t so happy for Golovkin, the slugger from Kazakhstan who for years walked through whoever was put in front of him. Golovkin rallied in the final rounds to make it close, only to listen in disbelief again as he wasn’t declared the winner.

“I feel like I’m a champion but he’s also a champion,” Golovkin said. “It was a fight of two champions tonight.”

Indeed it was. Alvarez abandoned his strategy from the first fight to box moving forward – a risky strategy that paid off, though just barely.

Though Golovkin and his handlers were careful not to criticize the result, promoter Tom Loeffler admitted it was tough to win a decision in an arena packed with Alvarez fans on Mexican Independence Day weekend.

Ringside punch stats showed a close fight, though they favored Golovkin by a small margin. Golovkin was credited with landing 234 of 879 punches while Alvarez landed 203 of 622.

But unlike many close decisions in boxing, there was no huge outcry, largely because the fight was almost too close to call.

“It was me who pushed him back, me who was most aggressive,” Alvarez said. “Unfortunately we didn’t get the knockout, but we got the victory.”

Alvarez said he wanted to fight again in December and could against David Lemieux, who scored a first-round knockout over Gary O’Sullivan on the undercard. With the lure of big money in a third fight with Golovkin, the two could meet again in May for a trilogy that is rare in boxing these days.

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