Broner: Canelo stops Golovkin

By Boxing News - 01/22/2017 - Comments

Image: Broner: Canelo stops Golovkin

By Dan Ambrose: Light welterweight contender Adrien Broner sees middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) as a vulnerable fighter, who would have lost to welterweight Kell Brook (36-1, 25 Kos) last September if he’d been a 160lb fighter rather than just a 147 pounder.

Broner says Golovkin will lose to Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) by a knockout when the two of them face each other in the near future. Since it’s still not known if Canelo will ever agree to fight Golovkin, it doesn’t matter what Broner’s opinion is on the subject of him and Canelo. At the rate that Canelo is going, we may not ever see him fight Golovkin.

“I say the same thing,” said Broner when told that Floyd Mayweather Jr. says Saul Canelo Alvarez stops Gennady Golovkin. “If Kell was a real middleweight, he’d have knocked him out.”

Brook is a good fighter, and he did land some nice shots on Golovkin in their fight on September 10 fight. The fact of the matter is that boxing matches are fights. Golovkin showed that he could take Brook’s punches without any problems. But when it came to Brook taking Golovkin’s shots, he came up short and had to be saved by his trainer in the 5th round.

I think Golovkin shined in that fight against a fighter that really didn’t come to fight. Brook came to spoil and hit and run. If Brook had chosen to fight Golovkin the way “Hit Man” Thomas Hearns fought Marvin Hagler in their fight many years ago, then we could have seen how a welterweight deals with a middleweight in a toe-to-toe fight, but that’s not Brook was doing. He was throwing some punches at Golovkin, and then taking off and circling the ring to escape.

Anyone can do that. Another thing that boxing fans and people like Broner fail to realize is that Brook is almost as big as Golovkin. Brook is a junior middleweight that boils down to fight at 147 to get an advantage over his smaller opposition. Brook isn’t a true welterweight. He rehydrates into the high 160s for his fights at 147. Golovkin rehydrates to around 170 to 173. We’re only talking about maybe 5-7lb difference between Golovkin and Brook. There’s not much weight difference at all.

Broner speaks as if Golovkin outweighed Brook by 30 pounds in their fight. Brook and Golovkin were close to the same weight in their fight last September. The only difference was the power that Golovkin had. He’s just a naturally stronger fighter than Brook. It’s not about weight through. Golovkin is just a much stronger fighter.

It’s the same way with Golovkin and Canelo. Golovkin probably weighs less than the robust Canelo, who is thought by some boxing fans to rehydrate into the 180s. We can’t know what Canelo weights on the night of his fights because he no longer lets HBO Boxing weigh him before he enters the ring. All you can do is look at how much bigger Canelo is when he was weighing in around 170 for his fights now.

Canelo looks heavier now. I wouldn’t be surprised if he rehydrates into the 180s. But the thing is, Golovkin is still stronger than Canelo. You can see that when you look at their fights. Golovkin hits with incredible power. Look at the left hook that Golovkin hit Brook with in the 1st round that shattered his right eye socket. That punch was out of this world powerful. In the 3rd round, Golovkin hit Brook with a right hand to the head that was devastatingly powerful. Brook too the shot, but he looked like he was not too interested in fighting anymore after that shot. In the 5th, Golovkin hit Brook with a right hand to the midsection that made Brook stop throwing punches for the remainder of the fight. Brook said he wasn’t hurt after, but he clearly was. Brook stopped throwing punches after getting hit with that body shot. He also stopped covering up his head. Brook didn’t want to get hit to the body again.

If Canelo is game and not afraid to fight Golovkin, then the boxing fans will get a chance to see whether Broner and Mayweather are right about Canelo knocking out Golovkin. Canelo’s last fight against Liam Smith is still fresh in my memory, and I think it’s not possible for Canelo to even compete with Golovkin right now based off that poor performance.

The Canelo that struggled against Liam Smith and needed a lot of rest breaks would get knocked out by Golovkin. Canelo not only needed rest breaks against Smith, he needed long rest breaks. The first time Canelo does that against Golovkin, he’ll be in danger of being stopped. If Golovkin hits Canelo to the body or to the head, he’ll probably go down. Canelo is human. He’s been able to take the shots of the guys he’s been facing thus far, but he’s only fought one big puncher in James Kirkland, who was too slow to do anything. I don’t think Canelo will last long against Golovkin.

Canelo gets hurt with body shots. Austin Trout hurt Canelo with a body shot, and he spent the entire second half of their fight against the ropes. If Canelo goes into his turtle mode and retreats to the ropes against Golovkin, the fight will end immediately. Canelo will be another Marco Antonio Rubio. He’ll be chopped down, and there will be a lot of boxing fans wondering what happened.

It’s obvious to me that Canelo won’t last against Golovkin, because he’s got bad habits of needing to go to the ropes, and he’s got horrible stamina. Canelo doesn’t fight with his back against the ropes because he’s trying to copy Floyd Mayweather Jr. He’s doing it because he’s got stamina issues. Canelo is built like a wrestler rather than a fighter. It’s obviously hard for his heart to keep him moving for long periods without needing rest breaks. Boxing is a sport that involves a lot of cardio. Canelo has a weakness in that area and he always has.

Canelo will be fighting Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KOs) on May 6 on HBO pay-per-view. The boxing world probably won’t get a chance to see much in that fight as far as a competitive match-up, but Chavez Jr. might last long enough to test Canelo’s midsection with some big body shots. It Chavez Jr. isn’t too weight drained from getting down to the 164 1/2 catch-weight, he should be able to nail Canelo with some hard body shots.

For his part, Golovkin has a much tougher fight ahead of him on March 18 on HBO PPV against Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) at Madison Square Garden in New York. If Golovkin is such a mediocre fighter as Broner and Mayweather might think he is, then Jacobs should be able to beat him without any problems on March 18. Of course, if Golovkin knocks Jacobs out quickly, then I think he deserves his props for stopping him. Jacobs has only lost once in his career in a 5th round knockout defeat seven years ago in 2010. Jacobs supposedly has improved since then. If he’s improved and Golovkin can still destroy him, then that says a lot about Golovkin.

Broner (32-2, 24 KOs) will be fighting next month against Adrian Granados (18-4-2, 12 KOs) on February 18 at the Cintas Center, in Cincinnati, Ohio. It should be a good fight. Hopefully, Broner doesn’t lose again like he did against Marcos Maidana and Shawn Porter.