LAS VEGAS – In the final seconds of last night’s middleweight title fight nobody seemed to care anymore who won. Instead the sellout crowd of 22,358 at the T-Mobile Arena rose as one and began to cheer both Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez as they tore at each other like two rabid dogs, each trying with his last full measure to find the punch that would bring them victory. As it turned out, neither did.

After 12 rounds of fierce battling, mostly at close quarters, Golovkin and Alvarez were still standing and Golovkin was still middleweight champion but not because he won. Because nobody won.

Judge Adelaide Byrd scored the bout a lopsided 118-110 for Alvarez while Dave Moretti saw it 115-113 for Golovkin and judge Don Trella scored the fight 114-114. The Herald card also had a draw, and so no belts changed hands, but then again no one’s hand was raised either.

The crowd was not as convinced as the judges however, booing when Alvarez was interviewed in the ring after the decision was announced, for what it was difficult to say. He had done all he could but came up short. Same was true of Golovkin, who certainly didn’t look like the feared power puncher so many claimed him to be.

Golovkin came into the fight considered one of the biggest punchers in boxing but he never hurt Alvarez, although he did often force the former junior middleweight champion to move against the ropes, using his superior size to pin him, although he did no real damage there.

“Not my fault,’’ Golovkin said. “I put pressure on every round. Of course I want the rematch. I still have the belts. I’m still the champion.’’

Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KO) landed the bigger punches, especially to the body, but often wasn’t busy enough or crafty enough to keep Golovkin at bay and pile up points. On the flip side, the champion was never able to hurt Alvarez, although he did tire him out as the rounds wore on as Alvarez too often found himself with his back against the ropes, looking to counter.

He did that successfully at times but didn’t take the play away from Golovkin often enough to win. Then again, Golovkin didn’t appear to do enough to make a clear statement himself that he was the superior man. So, in the end, the judges seemed to get it right, even though Byrd was so far off she made the three of them right by being wildly wrong herself, as she so often is.

“In any business, you have an off day,’’ Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Bob Bennett said of Byrd’s card after first defending her resume and 30-year career. He did not however offer up her most recent eye exam results, which might have been exculpatory.

“I thought I won the fight,’’ Alvarez claimed, as they always do. “I was superior inside the ring. I won at least seven … eight of the rounds. I was able to counterpunch and even make Gennady Golovkin wobble a couple of times. I feel frustrated over this draw.”

So did the crowd, but in the end boxing got what it needed. It got a highly competitive and highly entertaining fight between two guys who came to the ring looking to throw punches and break the other’s spirit. They succeeded in the former, but not in the latter, which is why by midnight there was already talk of doing it again, if the two were amenable to it. And why not?

“Of course, I want the rematch, Golovkin said. “Ditto,’’ Alvarez said in Spanish.

The final punch stats seemed to support the draw, however, Golovkin outlanding Canelo, 218-169, while Alvarez had a higher connection rate, 33.5 to 31 percent. More telling, Alvarez landed slightly more power punches (114-110) and was far more accurate, scoring on 41.9 percent of his non-jabs while Golovkin landed only 32.2. The latter was a marked fall off from Golovkin’s previous 13 fights, when he landed an average of 46 percent of his power punches.

The latter was in part because of Alvarez’s ability to slip and cover up in close but also because he landed just enough body punches to make Golovkin unwilling to step in and throw with the full commitment to mayhem he’d shown in earlier fights against lesser opponents.

Both fighters were predictably cautious in the opening round, but Alvarez twice caught Golovkin with solid counters when he missed wildly with right hooks. Golovkin was not snapping his jab as effectively as expected, often falling short as he tried to find the right punching distance but couldn’t quite zone in.

Golovkin appeared to be laboring early, his accuracy off, although he did land one hard right hand in Round 2 that caused Alvarez’ eyes to widen as he moved away. Whether Golovkin noted that or not, he began to press in closer in Round 3 and scored, although he paid for it at one point when Alvarez ripped an uppercut in the center of the ring that caught him squarely.

Alvarez kept trying to land to the body with mixed success while Golovkin continued to come forward with cautious aggression. As he closed the distance, he twice pinned Alvarez on the ropes in Round 4 but was surprisingly less than aggressive, scoring but not throwing with the bad intentions so often seen in prior fights.

He got Alvarez in a similar situation early in Round 5 and midway through the round pinned him against the ropes, this time strafing him with a solid right-left combination. Alvarez waved him in, shaking his head. Seconds later Golovkin obliged, snapping his head around with a hard right to the jaw as the champion bore in, looking like he now felt he had the advantage.

Golovkin opened the sixth round the same way but, he caught a crushing body shot from Alvarez that backed him up and had the crowd roaring “Canelo!’’ Alvarez soon after landed a hard right, but Golovkin then launched another attack, skipping toward him seemingly anxious to engage as Alvarez kept backing into the corner or being forced there by Golovkin’s physicality.

This was the pattern predicted by Golovkin’s trainer, Abel Sanchez, who thought Golovkin’s superior size and power would begin to wear the smaller man down. Golovkin fought the seventh round as if he agreed, constantly boring in as Alvarez kept retreating without using the jab to slow him down. Pinned too often into a defensive posture, Alvarez was now having a difficult time getting back to the middle distance he held earlier in the fight.

Alvarez seemed too often in retreat and unwilling to challenge Golovkin with the jab, but late in Round 8, he landed his best punch of the fight, a stinging uppercut to the point of the chin that had Golovkin’s head snapping back and his feet quickly retreating.

Round 9 was similar with Golovkin carrying most of the round until Alvarez nailed him with a big right hook that sent the sweat flying from Golovkin’s head. Both were now tiring noticeably, but instead of retreating, were more often going toe-to-toe. Golovkin appeared to get the better of many of the exchanges, but Alvarez was taking his own pound of flesh from the champion as well.

With one round to go, the fight seemed to be tilting toward Golovkin, but not by much, even though he had been the aggressor most of the fight. The two fought as if each felt that was so in the final three minutes, Alvarez nailing Golovkin early with a hard right and a four-punch combination. Soon after he delivered a three-punch combination as well, but Golovkin came back and scored on the inside once again.

Then, with 15 seconds to go, the crowd stood and roared for both, appreciating not the man they favored when the night began but the effort both provided. The cheers were well earned and so was the draw.