By Allan Fox: Gennady “GGG” Golovkin was not overally impressed with what he saw from Saul “Canelo” in his high priced pay-per-view fight on HBO last Saturday against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Golovkin says he knew going into that contest that Canelo (49-1-1, 34 KOs) would win without any problems over the 30-year-old Chavez Jr.
The Canelo vs. Golovkin fight was announced last Saturday night for September 16, and it’s come just in time for boxing after the poor fight that they saw between Canelo and an over-matched Chavez Jr.
As far as Golovkin is concerned, Canelo didn’t finish the job by giving the paying boxing fans their money’s worth by finishing off Chavez Jr. for the knockout. Golovkin says that he’s different from Canelo. When he has a fighter that he can knockout, he does so. He doesn’t leave them out there, because he wants to make sure the boxing fans see an exciting drama show when they come see him fight. Canelo looked he didn’t have the stamina or the power needed for him to stop Chavez Jr. (50-3-1, 32 KOs) last Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight was shown on HBO PPV, and the fans had to pay a good money to see the match. Two days after the fight, many boxing fans are complaining about the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight, calling it ‘boring’ and a ‘waste of time and money.’
“I watch boxing closely. I knew Canelo was going to beat Chavez easy, and I thought he was going to get up there after what he did last year and make another scene, say something like, ‘I did this to Chavez, and I’ll do the same thing to you, Triple-G,’” Golovkin said to the latimes.com.
There were a lot of people who were thinking the same thing as Golovkin did about the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. fight ahead of time, which is why many of them likely didn’t bother purchasing the fight. A lot of boxing fans were saying Canelo-Chavez Jr. was a “business fight,” which meant that they viewed it as a non-competitive affair where Canelo would beat up another sacrificial lamb. It’s too bad that this turned out to be the case last Saturday night, because the fans deserved better than this.
When they have a promotional company telling them that a fight between a ring rusty and past his best Chavez Jr. and Canelo is going to be a thrilling war, it angers them when the match turns out to be the complete opposite. Golovkin saw the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight for what it was – a mismatch.
Many of the boxing public saying that it was “a money grab” on Canelo, Golden Boy and Chavez Jr’s part. It would be nice if Canelo and turns over a new leaf from this point on in electing to fight the best instead of what he’s been facing, which is more of the opposite. Any fighter can look good when they’re matched against a weight drained/over-the-hill fighter like we saw with Chavez Jr. It’s time that Canelo start fighting better opposition.
“[Saturday] was a little boring, like sparring. Canelo doesn’t want [to finish],” Golovkin said. “That’s not good for the people. A lot of people bought tickets and the pay-per-view. For what? For a show. Everybody likes drama, like my knockouts. If I see I can beat them, I do.”
Golovkin is being nice here by saying that the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. fight was “a little boring.” It was INCREDIBLY BORING. Words can’t describe how truly bad Canelo’s fight against Chavez Jr. was. At this level, Canelo should be fighting better opposition. He’s 26-years-old, and he’s captured world titles in 2 divisions during his career. Canelo likes to point out that he’s fought the best in boxing. But it doesn’t make sense when he’s matched against a guy with a sagging career like Chavez Jr.
The fight made sense 5 years ago when Chavez Jr. was in his prime, but not now. The timing was bad for the fight. It would be like Canelo being retired and over-the-hill for 5 years, and then being into the ring against a prime Golovkin. Canelo wouldn’t stand a chance under those conditions. It would be a terrible idea. For all intents and purposes, Chavez Jr. hasn’t been a factor in boxing since his loss to Sergio Martinez in 2012. Chavez Jr. fought sporadically since then, but mostly against poor opposition that he’s looked terrible against. Golden Boy obviously did their research well on Chavez Jr. in picking him at this point in his career instead of earlier.
You’d hate to think that the only reason Chavez Jr. got the fight with Canelo is because his career and boxing skills had deteriorated so badly in the last 5 years. If Canelo is the best fighter in the sport, then he shouldn’t need to be matched against fighters when they’re fading. Some people think that the only reason Gennady Golovkin got the fight with Canelo is because of him not looking great in his last 2 fights against Danny Jacobs and Kell Brook.
Whether Golovkin purposefully looked bad in those fights is open for debate, but it does look odd that Canelo and Golden Boy finally gave the Kazakhstan fighter the match after those 2 fights rather than before that when he was looking good. It almost looks like another cherry picking move by Golden Boy and Canelo to take GGG now as he’s fading, just like what was done in them selecting Chavez Jr. when he was a faded fighter.
Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya was uncharacteristically quiet after the fight last Saturday. Instead of doing a lot of talking about the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight outcome, De La Hoya faded into the background and had Canelo doing a lot of the talking. It seemed strange for De La Hoya not to be saying much about the fight.
With the Canelo-Chavez Jr. setting such a low bar as far as entertainment, there’s no way that the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight can’t surpass what the boxing fans saw in that horrendous mismatch. That’s definitely positive news for the public. It would be black eye for the sport if Golden Boy selected another faded fighter to throw into the ring to fight Canelo in his next fight. We’ve too much of that from Golden Boy in the last 3 years with them matching Canelo against Alfredo Angulo, Amir Khan, James Kirkland and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Golovkin is going to take the fight to Canelo in a way that Chavez Jr. should have last Saturday night. I don’t think Golovkin will be afraid of getting countered by Canelo, because he’s going to make sure that his punches count. Golovkin is pretty good at blocking shots, especially when they’re hooks like the ones that Canelo throws. Golovkin clearly is the better puncher of the two.
If Canelo wants to trade shots with Golovkin for as long as the fight lasts, I see it ending badly for the redheaded star. What was clear from watching the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. card last Saturday night was that David Lemieux, who fought in the co-feature against Marcos Reyes, is a lot better puncher than Canelo. I don’t think there’s any doubt of that. Lemieux hits A LOT harder than Canelo. Lemieux is also bigger than Canelo. Golovkin took care of Lemieux in beating him by an 8th round knockout in their fight in 2015.
The thing about the Golovkin-Lemieux fight was the fact that it wasn’t even close. It was a rout from start to finish, similar to the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight. I think Golovkin will do the same thing to Canelo that he did with Lemieux. I don’t see it being a fight at all, period. The only it will be interesting is if Golovkin lets his off the gas the way he sometimes does when he gets bored and wants to make it exciting for the boxing fans.
I honestly wouldn’t favor Canelo to beat Lemieux at this point. After seeing the two on the card last Saturday, I thought Lemieux looked like the better fighter and the much more dangerous guy. I think Lemieux has improved since his loss to Golovkin. He’s more certain what he wants to do inside the ring, and that makes him a real threat to someone like Canelo. My point is if Golovkin was able to dominate a bigger puncher like Lemieux, then it’s game over for Canelo when he gets inside the ring with GGG on September 16.