By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Naazim Richardson thinks that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has the punching power and the boxing skills to give middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin a great deal of problems when the two of them encounter each other in the future. Richardson suggests that the Golden Boy Promotions star Canelo should use his boxing skills to fight Golovkin rather than standing and trading with him. He feels this is the best way for him to deal with Golovkin.
Richardson says that Golovkin won’t be able to stand and load up on his shots against the 26-year-old Canelo the way that he’s been doing against the other opposition he’s faced during his career because of his punching power. Richardson says that Canelo has been tested and he’s a proven talent. He doesn’t feel the same way against Golovkin. His test will come when he fights Canelo.
“He can keep Triple G honest enough to maybe out-box him,” said Naazim Richardson to Fighthub.com. “That’s why they need to fight the fight, because Triple G ain’t no joke. Canelo has proven that he’s the truth. We don’t know if he’s [Golovkin] the guy to dominate the quality like a Canelo. We don’t know if he’ll dominate the quality like that because Canelo has been in some shootouts. Canelo been in some bouts that taught him a lot like the [Floyd] Mayweather fight. I thought he was boxing real nice in the Mayweather fight. Canelo is a proven commodity,” said Richardson.
You can argue that Canelo isn’t a proven commodity at this point in his career. Canelo’s best wins came against Erislandy Lara, Austin Trout, Amir Khan, Liam Smith, James Kirkland, Alfredo Angulo and Miguel Cotto. Those are all fighters that Golovkin would likely knockout, and not just beat by a decision. Canelo’s 12 round split decision win over Lara in 2014 was a very questionable one.
A lot of boxing fans saw Lara as the winner. Even if you want to say that Canelo did enough to beat Lara, it was still very close at the end, and it was NOT and impressive performance from him. Canelo should have given Lara a rematch so that he could have proven to the boxing fans and to him that he was the better fighter. Canelo’s win Trout was also very close, as was his win Miguel Cotto.
Canelo lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. by a one-sided 12 round decision in 2013. The truth is Canelo isn’t proven. He’s only proven that he can beat the good but not the REALLY good fighters in the sport. Canelo hasn’t fought Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs, Jermall Charlo, Demetrius Andrade, Julian Williams or Jermell Charlo. I think Naazim is impressed with Canelo’s wins over a handful of fighters. He needs to look again at his fights against Lara, Mayweather and Trout and see how he struggled in those fights.
“Triple G is the phenom that we’ve seen at the level he fights,” said Richardson. “He’s been talking about, ‘I can take some punches.’ He enjoys taking punches. He won’t take that from Canelo. I don’t know if Canelo can take triple G’s shots. We’ve seen [James] Kirkland and guys catching him. We’ve seen what Canelo is made out of. Now it’s time to see it against quality like Triple G,” said Richardson.
I don’t think for a second that Golovkin will just stand in front of Canelo and let him hit him with his big power shots. Golovkin doesn’t let the bigger punchers hit him. If Richardson had watched Golovkin’s fights against Curtis Stevens and David Lemieux, he’d have noticed that he didn’t let those guys hit him with their big power shots. On the contrary, Golovkin used his boxing skills to keep from getting hit by them as much as possible. We saw Golovkin jabbing a lot, and controlling both fighters from the outside more or less. Golovkin did go on the attack against both of them in the 8th round to get the knockout. But he wasn’t letting those guys hit him.
When asked what the keys to victory are for Canelo against Golovkin, Richardson said, “Box. He punches hard enough to keep him [off]. Triple G can’t commit like he commits to everyone else. Canelo punches hard enough to keep Triple G out of there. Canelo has to box,” said Richardson.
I don’t think Canelo has the reach or the jab to compete against Golovkin if the two of them are choosing to box. Golovkin’s reach is the same as Floyd Mayweather Jr., and his jab is better. Golovkin’s jab is a lot more powerful than Mayweather. Triple G is just a much stronger guy than Mayweather is. We saw what Mayweather was able to do to Canelo by just using his jab and reach. Golovkin can do the exact same thing against Canelo if he chooses.
I’m not sure that Golovkin will choose to box all night against him because he’ll want to get a knockout, and he’ll be trying to impress the boxing fans. Still. I think Golovkin will soften Canelo up with his jab for 6 rounds before he starts going after him in a big way. Once Canelo is bruised and discouraged, I think Golovkin will move and finish him off with his big power shots. I don’t think Canelo can handle Golovkin’s power for any length of time without dropping for the count or giving up somehow.
Mayweather had Canelo taking punishment against the ropes at one point in their fight. Canelo thought he could lure Mayweather in and counter him the way he did with Trout, but it backfired on him. Mayweather hit Canelo at will with shots when he backed against the ropes.
Golovkin has a fight on March 18 against Daniel Jacobs that he must win before he can start talking about a fight against Canelo. For his part, Canelo must win his next fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on May 6 before a fight against Golovkin can happen.
