Mexico’s independence weekend celebrations were dampened on Saturday night as Tapatio star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez suffered the first defeat of his career against Floyd Mayweather, the world’s number-one pound-for pound boxer.

“I just couldn’t get hold of him,” said Alvarez, 23, who put in a solid performance but failed to land a meaningful blow on the ever-sprightly Mayweather, 36. The latter was awarded Alvarez’s WBC and WBA Light Middleweight belts on a surprise split-decision (almost everyone felt Mayweather had dominated the bout and warranted a unanimous verdict) after 12 rounds.

“Canelo is a young, strong champion. A great Mexican champion,” Mayweather said. “I take my hat off to him and to Mexico. He can take a loss and bounce back.”

The sell-out fight at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena set a new gate record of over 20 million dollars, and once the two-million-plus pay-per-view sales are totaled it could be confirmed as the most lucrative event in boxing history. Mayweather (45-0-0; 26 Kos) earned a minimum of 41.5 million dollars, not including his sizable cut of pay-per-view sales, while Alvarez (42-1-1; 30 KOs) is expected to have banked around 12 million dollars.