Is Mayweather’s prediction of Canelo easily beating GGG accurate?

By Boxing News - 01/02/2017 - Comments

Image: Is Mayweather’s prediction of Canelo easily beating GGG accurate?

By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr. recently made a bold prediction in picking Mexican star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) to beat IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs). Mayweather not only believes that Canelo will beat Golovkin, but he’ll do it easily by knocking him out. Mayweather further said that Canelo should do what he wants.

Some boxing fans took this as code from Mayweather to mean that he should avoid taking the Golovkin fight. You can argue that Canelo has doing just that, as he still hasn’t faced Golovkin after two years. Golovkin has been interested in facing Canelo for ages now, and the fight still hasn’t happened.

Golden Boy would likely say it wasn’t the right time for the fight, but when is the right time? Golovkin is about to turn 35-years-old, and that’s considered old for a lot of fighters. Thus far, Golovkin is still fighting at a high level. Some would say that the cracks in Triple G’s façade started to show themselves in his last fight against Kell Brook.

Golovkin took some big shots from Brook in that fight before he broken his eye socket and stopped him. There was nothing wrong with Golovkin’s punching power. It was only his defense that seemed to be the problem for him.

If Canelo can easily beat Golovkin like Mayweather claims, then he should have already taken the fight with him. The way that Canelo and Golden Boy are stalling on the Golovkin fight, it gives boxing fans the impression that they’re ducking him. More specifically, they’re waiting him out until he gets REALLY old before they take the fight.

Mayweather recently said this about Canelo beating Golovkin with ease via Fighthype.com:
“Canelo beats Triple G easy,” said Mayweather. “Yeah, he beats him. He stops him. It don’t go the distance. Well, I have to tell Canelo this. Live your life. Do what makes you happy, Canelo.”

I really don’t think Mayweather wants Golovkin to fight Canelo soon. If Canelo fights Golovkin now and gets destroyed by him, then were does Mayweather’s victory over Canelo sit? Mayweather didn’t exactly fight the bravest fight against Canelo by choosing to just jab him and move around the ring for 12 rounds. The fight was boring to watch, because didn’t take any chances at all.

Mayweather seems to be still living off his win over Canelo Alvarez from 2013. It definitely helps Mayweather’s legacy that he’s been the only one to defeat Canelo during his career. However, Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout both seemed to do almost the same job as Mayweather did. The only difference was; they didn’t get the decisions over the more popular Canelo. In looking at those two fights, it’s difficult to picture Canelo beating Golovkin easily. For Canelo to stop Golovkin, he’s going to need to stay in the pocket and take some major head shots. Canelo isn’t going to be able to avoid everything that Golovkin throws at him.

The fans want to see if Canelo actually can easily beat Golovkin while he’s still relatively young. It’s no good if the 26-year-old Canelo is going to wait until Golovkin is an old man before taking the fight with him.

“There’s no limit to how far Canelo can go,” said Mayweather. “I mean, he has a crazy fan base.”

I bet Mayweather wouldn’t mind promoting Canelo. With the match-making that’s being done for Canelo by Golden Boy, he could continue to make money for a long time to come. That doesn’t mean we’re going to see Canelo fight dangerous guys like Jermall Charlo, Golovkin, Julian Williams or Demetrius Andrade. It just means Golden Boy will likely continue to find guys they can feed to Canelo like James Kirkland, Liam Smith, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Miguel Cotto and Billy Joe Saunders.

2017 is already pretty much booked for Canelo with Chavez Jr. likely his May opponent, Saunders his September opponent and Cotto for December. As for Golovkin, I don’t think he’s going to get the fight against Canelo in 2017. The fact that Golden Boy isn’t offering Golovkin a percentage deal is a sign that they’re not interested in making that fight yet. I do think Golden Boy wants to match Canelo against Golovkin, but only when he’s nice and old and relatively harmless.

In reviewing Canelo’s last fight against Liam Smith in preparation for this article, I think Canelo did not look good at all. He looked slow, he was hit a lot by Smith, and he needed to take frequent rest breaks against the ropes. Canelo tried to use head movement when he was against the ropes, but he was getting hit full on. It was kind of funny to watch. Smith would nail Canelo with a big head shots, and then Canelo would move his head after he was nailed. It was far too late for Canelo to move his head. He’d already been nailed by a big shot from Smith.

What I observed in Canelo’s performances in his last two fights against Liam Smith and Amir Khan is he’s starting to age, and he’s not the fighter that he was when he beat Austin Trout in 2013 and lost to Mayweather in the same year. I think Canelo is slowing down as he starts to head towards 30. One reason for Canelo slowing down is he’s gotten bulkier due to him putting on size. I don’t know how Canelo was able to make 154 for his last fight against Liam Smith or how he’s been able to make 155.

It has to have been really hard on him to take that kind of weight off. We didn’t get an official weight for Canelo on the night of his fights against Smith, Khan and Miguel Cotto, but I think he was at least 180, maybe a little heavier. Canelo looked huge compared Smith. Smith was in the 170s for that weight.

Golovkin took a lot of heat from boxing fans for him taking shots from Brook in their fight last September, but I still think he looked a lot better than Canelo did in his fight against Smith.