By Dan Ambrose: Saul Canelo Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) says he can do what Daniel Jacobs did against middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) in their fight last month, and he thinks he can do what he did but in a much better way. Canelo says the media is just now finding out about Golovkin’s flaws as a fighter, but he always knew what those flaws were. Canelo says Golovkin can’t handle movement and he can’t fight on the inside or while backing up.
Golovkin beat Jacobs by getting the better of him with his jab on the outside. However, even when Golovkin was on the inside, he still got the better of Jacobs. He knocked him down in the 4th round when he was at close range. Golovkin had problems with Jacobs’ hand speed and size at medium distance in the second half. In watching the fight in slow motion, most of the shots from Jacobs that boxing fans – and the judges – thought were landing to the head of Golovkin, were actually picked off on his gloves and arms. Jacobs landed very few shots. In slow motion, Golovkin was doing the better job in round in the second half of the fight. You can’t expect judges to see the fight in slow motion, so you can’t blame them for thinking Jacobs did better than he actually did.
Canelo’s trainer Eddy Reynoso says that they want to fight Golovkin this year because he’s shown that he’s a popular fighter. Right now, they have to concentrate on Canelo’s next fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on May 6.
“Me and all my camp already know what kind of fighter he was, and the media is just seeing it now,” said Canelo about Golovkin to Hoopjab. “I think what Danny Jacobs could do, I could do. I could do much more than what he did in that fight. I think Golovkin’s style is a style where he doesn’t know how to go backwards. He doesn’t know how to fight on the inside. He comes in; he’s very powerful, very strong. He only knows how to fight on the outside,” said Canelo.
Canelo is putting a lot of bank on what Jacobs was able to do, and he still lost the fight. There’s not much to get from that fight because Jacobs played it safe and still wound up getting knocked down and beaten. This was against Golovkin choosing to box him for 12 rounds rather than looking for a knockout. I don’t think for a second that Golovkin put in a big effort to knock Jacobs out. I think he could have if he had wanted to, but he chose to box him most of the fight instead of trying to a knockout.
It almost sounds like Canelo is jealous of the attention that Golovkin is getting in the media and from boxing fans. Canelo is starting to really downgrade Golovkin for some reason. I don’t think Canelo is going to be able to change the perception of the boxing fans by talking about Golovkin. He’s going to need to fight him and show the boxing public that he’s the better fighter.
Every fighter has flaws. Canelo’s flaws are even worse than Golovkin’s. Canelo can’t fight on the outside because of his lack of reach, and he has a lot of problems with fighters that jab and move around the ring. Watch Canelo’s fights against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Erislandy Lara to see an example of the problems he had against fighters that jabbed and moved. Miguel Cotto also gave Canelo problems with his jab, and he’s only 5’7”. There’s been no improvement in Canelo’s outside game since his loss to Mayweather. The only difference is he won a controversial decision against Lara, and then he’d been fed guys that have been beatable ever since by his promoters at Golden Boy.
“There’s many ways to beat him,” said Canelo. “If you stand in front of him, he’s going to get you. But if you move around, you’re going to give him a hard time. There are so many things out there and ways to beat him,” said Canelo about Golovkin.
The 26-year-old Canelo is starting to sound like a real expert in how to beat Golovkin. Maybe he can be a coach for the guys that Golovkin fights from now on. GGG’s opponents can have Canelo be their Golovkin expert in how to beat him by learning of the “many ways to beat him.” I somehow think Canelo is just a lot of talk. For a fighter that barely beat Lara and Cotto, he’s really not in the position to say he’s an expert in beating Triple. Canelo still needs to prove that he can beat Cotto and Lara in a conclusive manner before he starts telling everyone he knows how to beat Golovkin.
“We were not encouraged by this last fight offered by Golovkin,” said Canelo’s trainer Eddy Reynoso to ESPN Deportes in talking about the Golovkin-Jacobs fight. The truth is that we have always wanted the big fights, against rivals that generate good expectations for Saul. Generally, boxers like Golovkin are always hindered by elusive boxers, those who move, who constantly change their guard. Golovkin was shown before a slippery rival, who worked the whole quadrilateral and that type of boxing,”
Jacobs may have served a purpose by making Golovkin look vulnerable enough for Canelo to finally want to fight him. If this is all it took to get Canelo to show interest in fighting Golovkin, then it’s too bad that GGG didn’t look vulnerable in some of his earlier fights last year, beause maybe canelo wouyld have fought hi by now instead of fighting guys like Liam Smith and Amir Khan.
Canelo and Reynoso think alike when it comes to their opinions about Golovkin. Jacobs was out-jabbed by Golovkin. The movement that Jacobs used was not intelligent movement because Golovkin wasn’t trying to slug with him when he was stationary. Golovkin was just jabbing him. Jacobs had the wrong game plan for the type of fight that Golovkin was using. Jacobs should have conserved his energy and stood in place to try and beat Golovkin in a jabbing contest rather than wasting his energy moving a lot.
“But recently, Golovkin is already getting to Saul’s level in terms of attractiveness, as well as in terms of conditions and so we think the fight can happen this year,” said Reynoso.