After a paltry and much derided offering from Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in Las Vegas, the entire Canelo-Chavez event saved face - at least partially - after the final bell.
Moments after Canelo's unanimous, shutout decision victory was announced to an underwhelmed crowd, the Mexican two-weight world champion spoke with HBO's Max Kellerman to talk viewers through his routine victory. With rumours already circulating about a big post-fight 'announcement', Gennady Golovkin had sat four rows from the ring during Canelo's excellent display - about four seats to the left of Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins and the Golden Boy Promotions massive.
Sure enough, to significant audible excitement in Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena, Kellerman put the question to Canelo:
I'm told that there's a plan in place for your next opponent. Who is it?
As the lights in the arena dimmed as a prerequisite for what was to follow, Canelo leaned into Kellerman's microphone and glanced sideways, out of the ring. His reply sent the fans into orbit:
Golovkin, you are next, my friend.
Enter Golovkin to rapturous roars, but here's where the broadcasts in the USA and Ireland/The UK vary.
On HBO, the interview took place live, and so scorned American viewers who had parted with $70 for a garbage borefest witnessed the events unfold in full.
On the international feed, however, which Irish and British viewers watched on the excellent BoxNation, we were only given the post-fight interviews about 10 minutes after they had occurred. In actual fact, we witnessed only an edited and condensed version of events, and so on our screens, as soon as Canelo barked, "You are next, my friend," we watched Golovkin bound through the ropes to the tune of Seven Nation Army as if he'd been stood by ringside throughout Canelo's entire interview.
The reality was much different. Here's what HBO viewers saw on Saturday night.
Golovkin got a full WWE-style entrance, complete with a highlights compilation on the jumbotron and a little bit of thrash talk relayed over the tannoys. He also got a full ringwalk as the howling Mexican fans came to terms with the fight boxing had been waiting for, lapping up the adulation of fans' who have taken to his 'Mexican style' over the past number of years.
And so Irish and British viewers also missed Canelo roar, "Where are you?!?" into Kellerman's microphone as a Triple G promo beckoned the baddest man on the planet from the tunnel. It was exponentially more dramatic and more spectacular than we were led to believe.
Absolutely none of this is BoxNation's fault, by the way; the British-based channel simply work off the feed which is sent to them from America, and don't alter it in any way. This is why you'll sometimes see presenter Steve Bunce plead with viewers for patience as he waits for potential fighter interviews which may never be forthcoming.
As to why HBO felt they had to edit proceedings for the feed at all is anyone's guess; one possibility is that not all international networks would have owned the rights to show the highlights which they broadcast from the T-Mobile Arena jumbotron to their US viewers. Golovkin's 2013 stoppage of Curtis Stevens, for example, was shown by Sky Sports in the UK, and not BoxNation.
That seems a bit of a stretch, in truth. But in any case, we missed half of the furore which followed Canelo's announcement, and we were none the wiser.
