Danny Garcia: Golovkin is too big for Canelo

By Boxing News - 05/03/2016 - Comments

Image: Danny Garcia: Golovkin is too big for CaneloBy Dan Ambrose: WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia says he doesn’t see a fight between IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez happening for a number of reasons. Garcia said Golovkin is too big for the 5’9” Canelo, and there’s a big difference in the popularity of the two fighters.

Garcia says Golovkin brought in just 150,000 pay-per-view buys recently in his fight against David Lemieux; whereas Canelo brought in 900,000 for his title fight against former WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto recently. Due to the difference in popularity and in size, Garcia thinks that Canelo has no reasons to fight Golovkin and he doesn’t think he will.

Garcia thinks that instead of Golovkin trying to get a fight against what he feels is the smaller Canelo, Golovkin should focus on trying to fight Erislandy Lara, Daniel Jacobs, Gilberto Ramirez and Andre Ward. Lara fights in the junior middleweight division and doesn’t have a large fan base in the U.S. Jacobs fights for Al Haymon, and a fight against him would be nearly impossible for Golovkin. Ramirez is a super middleweight and has no fan base in the U.S and would have a four inch height and five inch reach advantage over Golovkin.

Ramirez would likely have a 15 to 20 pound weight advantage as well. Golovkin is 5’10 1’2”, and Canelo 5’9”. Their reach is the same. They both weight the exact same amount for their fights. If anything, Canelo is a little heavier. So when people like Danny Garcia say Golovkin is too big for Canelo, he’s basically saying Golovkin’s too tall for Canelo, because an inch and a half is the only thing that separates the two fighters. They both have a reach of 70 inches. There’s no difference there. Their weight is the same after they rehydrate. Both guys come in at 170 or close to that weight.

“Triple G, he’s knocking everybody out,” said Danny Garcia to fighthype.com. “He’s a strong fighter, man. He’s an Olympic Silver medalist and a world champion, so you can’t take nothing away from him. I’m looking forward to seeing who he fights next. I’d like to see him in there in some good competitive fighters, but they don’t want to get in there with him. There’s nothing he can do about it, but I’d like to see him in there with someone who can test him,” said Garcia.

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Canelo can’t just pick and choose guys that bring in a ton of PPV buys, because there aren’t any fighters out there now that can do this now that Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao have retired. Garcia says Canelo doesn’t have to fight Golovkin because he brings in more PPV buys than him. Canelo’s next opponent isn’t a PPV fight and Canelo is still fighting him.

Unfortunately, I think Garcia is right about the Golovkin vs. Canelo fight not happening. I think it’s academic that Golden Boy will be steering Canelo away from Golovkin for the time being. I do think it’s going to happen one of these days, but only after Canelo has exhausted all possible money fights and he’s seeing his PPV numbers dropping due to too many mismatches against welterweights and James Kirkland type easy opponents.

There’s only so many welterweights you can put Canelo in with before the boxing public starts to realize that he’s being put in with smaller guys that are being asked to move up in weight to fight him in his weight division at 155. Golden Boy will eventually match Canelo against Golovkin, but I think it’ll be when Golovkin is older and starting to show signs of deterioration due to his aging. He’s 34 now, so you’ve got figure that he might have another three to four years before he’s no longer the fighter he is today. I think that’s when Golden Boy will let Canelo fight Golovkin. Canelo will be 28 or 29 by then and still in his prime.

“I think that’s a big fight the fans want to see, but I don’t think it’s going to happen for the reason because Canelo is a big draw,” said Garcia about a fight between him and Golovkin. If you go by numbers, Canelo’s last fight did 900,000 pay-per-views and Triple G did 150,000. I head a little less than 150,000. So if you go by numbers, Canelo doesn’t need the fight. Triple G needs the fight to get his numbers up because Canelo’s the bigger star, but I don’t think it’s going to happen because Canelo’s the smaller man. I know Golden Boy Promotions, that’s their big star. Why would they want to go into a fight at a disadvantage? So there’s a lot of fights out there for Triple G. I’d like to see Triple G…Lara’s a good fight; Daniel Jacobs, Andre Ward. I think one kid, the Mexican southpaw champion [WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez]. He looks impressive. There’s options out there. You just got to make them happen,” said Garcia.

It seems like Garcia is fine with Golovkin fighting bigger fighters but not for Canelo to fight someone that is slightly taller than him in Golovkin. What Garcia says makes zero sense. If Canelo can’t fight guys that are slightly taller than him during his career but weight the same amount, then what kind of career is he going to have? Is he just going to fight short guys? If a fighter is an inch and a half taller than him, does that mean Canelo will never fight these guys?

Andre Ward is two inches taller than Golovkin at 6’0”, and fights in the light heavyweight division. Ward likely rehydrates to 190 for his fights, possibly more. Golovkin rehydrates to exactly 170. If Golovkin faces Ward, he would be outweighed by 20 pounds at the minimum. But if Golovkin fights Canelo, he’ll about the same at 170. I fail to see where Golovkin is bigger than Canelo. If they both weigh the same and have the same reach at 70 inches, then how is Golovkin bigger?

Like I said, Golovkin is slightly taller than Canelo and that’s it. But that shouldn’t mean that Golovkin has to move up two weight classes to fight a light heavyweight like Ward and give up 20 pounds in the process. That shouldn’t mean that Golovkin has to fight one of the biggest super middleweights in the division in Gilberto Ramirez and give up 15 to 20 pounds of weight. If you saw Ramirez’s recent fight against the 5’9” Arthur Abraham last April, you may have noticed how huge Ramirez looked in the ring. He looked like a light heavyweight. More power to Ramirez for being able to boil down to super middleweight, but he looked like a clear light heavyweight fighting a small super middleweight in Abraham.

When asked if Canelo is a middleweight, Golovkin said “Absolutely, yeah. He’s the same size as me. weight is like me. He wants 155. This is difficult. He’s middleweight champion. Middleweight is 160. This is for business [Canelo fight,” said Golovkin about Canelo potentially fighting the much smaller welterweight Manny Pacquiao. “I think Canelo is too big for Manny. Right now for what? 155? I think it’s too much for Manny. Canelo’s coming in at 155, and next day is 175. He’s too big. That’s not to respect boxing sport. No. Yeah, I don’t like that fight because he’s too big. Canelo, he’s in the middleweight division. He’s not 140 or 147,” said Golovkin.

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