Arum: Golovkin will massacre Canelo

By Boxing News - 04/27/2016 - Comments

Image: Arum: Golovkin will massacre CaneloBy Dan Ambrose: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum thinks WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions should either put off a fight between Canelo and unbeaten IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (35-0, 32 KOs) until Golovkin gets old or until someone else comes along and eventually beats the Kazakhstan star.

Arum says that if the 25-year-old Canelo is put in the ring right now with Golovkin, he’ll be totally massacred and wind up getting knocked out. Arum points out that Canelo losing to boxing great Floyd Mayweather Jr. on points is one thing, but losing to Golovkin by a knockout would be a much different thing.

Canelo could wind up losing not only the fight but also a huge portion of his fans in the process. That in turn would hurt potentially Canelo’s future earning power for years to come. It’s possible that Canelo could never recover from such a thing. He would still be a popular fighter, but there might be many fans unwilling to pay to see him fight in the future.

How do you justify asking fans to pay to see someone who was knocked out by Golovkin? Golden Boy could eventually rebuild Canelo with enough careful matchmaking, but it might takes years of putting him in with flawed fighters like Alfredo Angulo and James Kirkland rather than with the good opposition.

“All the clamor for ‘Canelo’-Golovkin, you think that’s an even fight?” said Arum to the latimes.com about Canelo vs. Golovkin. “Put it off as long as possible, hope [Golovkin] gets beat and it goes away, or that [Golovkin] gets old. Fans want everything right away. The promoters have to do what’s best for their fighter. ‘Canelo’ is good, but ‘Triple-G’ [Golovkin] with ‘Canelo’ is a massacre. It’s one thing to lose a decision to Mayweather,” Arum said. “It’s another thing to get counted out by Golovkin.”

Arum, of course, is right about Canelo being in the position where he cold wind up getting massacred by Golovkin and likely knocked out. The thing of it is if Golden Boy wants to turn Canelo into a more popular fighter and make him the moneymaker that Floyd Mayweather Jr. was in the sport, then they need to be willing to put him in with the best fighters.

Canelo will never rise up to the level where Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao were at if all Golden Boy is willing to do is match him against welterweights or flawed fighters like Kirkland and Angulo. Canelo did fight Miguel Cotto last November, but the 35-year-old Cotto started his career out as a light welterweight at 140lbs, and he’s gained weight as he’s aged.

Cotto isn’t a natural middleweight like Canelo, who at 170+ pounds looks ridiculous in saying he’s not a middleweight. Canelo seems to be in denial about what he is. It’s like a cigarette smoker saying he doesn’t really smoke because he only smokes one cigarette a day.

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Canelo is clearly a middleweight who seems to be committed to fighting at the 155lb catch-weight for some reason. He would likely be a much better fighter if he fought at the full weight for the 160lb division rather than boiling down 15 to 20 pounds to get to 155 for his catch-weight fights.

“Of course, this fight can happen. We’re going to sit down, analyze everything and then go from there,” said Golden Boy Promotions vice president Eric Gomez to the latimes.com. “It’s a ridiculous notion … stupid. He’s never ducked an opponent, never ducked anybody. Name two champions ‘Triple-G’ has fought in his last 10 fights? Who? If ‘Canelo’ fought all those guys, he’d still be undefeated,” said Gomez.

The World Boxing Council has already said that Canelo must fight Golovkin. Canelo can vacate his WBC title if he wants to, but otherwise he’ll need to take the fight with him. It was reported that the WBC president Jose Sulaiman is saying that Canelo must face Golovkin or wind up getting stripped of his WBC title. I’m not sure that Canelo will be too bothered by any threats like that because there are plenty of welterweights out there for him to fight if he gets stripped of his WBC middleweight title.

Cotto wants a rematch with Canelo, and Golden Boy will likely jump at the chance of making that fight. They’re interested in also putting Canelo in with the now retired former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao for later this year. It’s unlikely that fight will get made though because Pacquiao wants to go into politics in his home country of the Philippines. It doesn’t matter though if Golden Boy can’t get Pacquiao to take the fight.

They have the following fighters as potential opponents for Canelo to pick from: Cotto, Kell Brook. Tim Bradley, Jessie Vargas, Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Errol Spence, Khan rematch, Terence Crawford, Viktor Postol, Lucas Matthysse, and Ruslan Provodnikov.

Unfortunately, most of Golden Boy’s options for Canelo likely are from the welterweight division rather than putting him in risky fights against middleweights or junior middleweights like Daniel Jacobs, Peter Quillin, Golovkin or the Charlo brothers.