LAS VEGAS – Canelo Alvarez didn’t detect any slippage in Gennadiy Golovkin during his last fight.

Golovkin got off to a very slow start against Ryota Murata, who hit the IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion with numerous flush punches during the first four-plus rounds of their 160-pound championship match April 9 in Saitama, Japan. The Kazakhstan native came back in his first fight in almost 17 months to drop and stop Murata in the ninth round of a bout Golovkin won by technical knockout at Saitama Arena.

According to Alvarez, the 40-year-old Golovkin looked like his old self, not like an old fighter. Alvarez discussed Golovkin’s most recent performance with a small group of reporters Tuesday at MGM Grand following their “grand arrivals” for their third showdown Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.

“He did a really good job,” Alvarez said. “He’s the same fighter. He’s strong. He takes punches. He hits hard. So, he’s the same fighter.”

Judges Robert Hoyle (79-73), Glenn Feldman (78-74) and Alex Levin (77-75) all had Golovkin in front of Murata through eight rounds of action five months ago. Referee Luis Pabon stopped their fight at 2:11 of the ninth round because Murata’s trainer threw in the towel just as he began to count following the aforementioned knockdown.

Japan’s Murata (16-3, 13 KOs), who lost his WBA title to Golovkin, was stopped inside the distance for the first time as a pro. He exposed some of Golovkin’s defensive flaws and landed various hard head and body blows, but Alvarez thinks Golovkin wasn’t wary of his opponent’s power once he tasted it early in their scheduled 12-rounder.

“I think he got hit a lot because Murata don’t hit so hard,” Alvarez said. “That’s why he’s like, ‘OK.’ That’s what I think. I don’t know.”

Golovkin obviously will be mindful of Alvarez’s power because they have spent 24 hard-fought rounds in the ring together and he knows that the Mexican icon can crack. He’ll try to avenge his only professional loss – a 12-round, majority-decision defeat to Alvarez in September 2018 at T-Mobile Arena.

Alvarez (57-2-2, 39 KOs), who is eight years younger than Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs), is listed as at least a 5-1 favorite by most sportsbooks to defeat his rival in their long-awaited third fight. They’ll fight for Alvarez’s IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles in a 12-round main event DAZN will distribute at price points of $64.99 for subscribers and $84.99 for non-subscribers.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.