By Dan Ambrose: Amir Khan is officially endorsing Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) in saying that he’ll not only beat former WBC 160lb champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-2-1, 32 KOs) in their proposed fight on May 6, but he’ll also beat IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs) as well.
Canelo and Golovkin, 34, could be fighting each other in September 2017 if the fight can get negotiated. Some boxing fans have serious reservations about the fight being made, as they think Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions are already working behind the scenes to make sure the Canelo-Golovkin fight doesn’t get made in 2017 by offering Golovkin only lump fee offers rather than a well-deserved proportion of the revenue.
It’s not surprising that Khan is on board the Canelo express, considering that he was knocked unconscious by the 26-year-old red-headed Mexican star last May on Cinco de Mayo. However, Khan was winning the fight after five rounds in the minds of many if not most boxing fans. The fact that Khan, a mere welterweight, was ahead of Canelo at the time of the stoppage doesn’t reflect too well on Canelo.
Khan said this to esnewsreporting.com about his belief that Canelo beats Golovkin when or if they fight each other in the future:
“I think a lot of people underestimate Canelo,” said Khan. “I think Canelo’s a great fighter. He’s very strong. He’s a good boxer. He moves quite well. I give that fight to Canelo,” said Khan in speaking about Chavez Jr. vs. Canelo. Even if he fought Triple G, I think he beats Triple G. A lot of people are underestimating him. I don’t know why. I’ve been in the ring with Canelo. He’s hard to hit. He’s quite tricky, and like I said, he hits very hard. I think he’d give a lot of people problems. He’ll beat Chavez. I like Chavez. I just think he’s got the style. He’s a little more fluid,” said Khan.
I don’t think the boxing public underestimates Canelo if he were facing one of his typical opponents like Liam Smith, James Kirkland, Khan, Josesito Lopez and Austin Trout. The problem is, Canelo won’t be facing one of those guys if he faces Golovkin. He’ll be facing the real thing. Golovkin brings his own judges with him in the form of his fists, so there’s little chance that we’ll see Canelo winning a controversial decision like he won over Erislandy Lara in 2014. Golovkin won’t let the fight get to the cards.
Either Golovkin knocks Canelo out or vice versa. Since Canelo hasn’t been facing live bodies since his questionable win over Lara, he might not be ready for the type of war that Golovkin will be bringing to him. Certainly you can’t say that the 30-year-old Chavez Jr. will be able to give Canelo a proper tune-up for what Golovkin will be bringing to the table in September.
Chavez Jr. was a decent middleweight champion four years ago in defending the WBC middleweight title against limit opposition. But as soon as Chavez Jr. fought his first quality opponent in Sergio Martinez, he lost badly to him by a 12 round unanimous decision. Chavez Jr’s career has never been the same after that loss. Canelo isn’t going to get much from fighting Chavez Jr. other than a downgrade from his last opponent Liam Smith.
“The shot I got hit with by Canelo, I think Canelo would have knocked out a horse with that shot. He put everything in it. He put his back into it. His body got into it. When he hit me, it was going to be lights out,” said Khan.
If Khan turns out to be correct in his prediction of Canelo beating GGG, he might want to start predicting other things like the lottery numbers for people, because few boxing fans believe that Canelo has the talent to beat Triple G. They do feel that Canelo has the youth to wait Golovkin out until he’s an old man, and then possibly beat him under those kinds of conditions.
It would be similar to the way that Floyd Mayweather Jr. waited until Manny Pacquiao got old and had been beaten by Juan Manuel Marquez and Tim Bradley. Sadly, Mayweather was given credit by some boxing fans for having picked the right time to fight Pacquiao in terms of fan interest. The fans never lost interest in the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight despite the Filipino fighter having suffered two serious setbacks. Will the same boxing fans overlook Golovkin getting old eventually and beaten by someone else BEFORE he faces Canelo? I doubt it. This is a different fighter. I think the public will only be interested in a fight between Canelo and Golovkin while GGG is still unbeaten and seen as the best fighter in the 160lb division. If Canelo and Golden Boy choose to wait him out until he’s old and no longer the same fighter, the boxing public will see through that and see it as a trick by Canelo.
Canelo didn’t help himself that he chose not to fight the best fighters at 154 when he fought in that division. He never fought the Charlo brothers, Demetrius Andrade and Julian Williams. Canelo did fight Lara, but he lost that fight in the view of the fans. He only landed 31 head shots in the entire fight.
Canelo didn’t do much better after beating Miguel Cotto at a catchweight to win his WBC middleweight title. Canelo chose to defend the title against welterweight Amir Khan rather than one of the top contenders in the weight class. Canelo’s next move was to vacate his WBC title rather than fight Golovkin this year. That move resulted in Canelo losing a lot of boxing fans, who saw his ducking of GGG as a cowardly move.
At the end of the day if Canelo is going to beat Golovkin like Khan has predicted, then he’s going to need to fight a lot better than he did in the Khan and Liam Smith fights. The Canelo that beat those two fighters would be easy pickings for Triple G.