Canelo-Golovkin: Finally a REAL fight

By Michael Vena - 05/11/2017 - Comments

Image: Canelo-Golovkin: Finally a REAL fight

By Yannis Mihanos: After 2 years of waiting, the boxing fans finally get what they want with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) facing IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0, 33 KO’s) in a massive showdown on September 16th.

Often promoters make things difficult in boxing, they look through it from the eyes of the businessman. They would protect their fighters as they would protect their investments and of course they would take minimal risks.

In the case of Canelo, his last 3 opponents Miguel Cotto, Amir Khan and Julio Chavez Jr. were all overhyped, overestimated, presented as formidable opponents. They were all used as a means to an end. Golden Boy Promotions’ top man Oscar De La Hoya is arguably becoming an expert in masquerading mismatches into big battles, tune up fights into great fights. But because this method can’t continue forever now finally we have the fight that we all want to watch. Finally, we have a real gutsy fight and Canelo will also feel relieved.

The pressure on him these last two years has been enormous, so many questions, so many accusations for evicting Golovkin.

I see Canelo as an extremely devoted, and extremely dedicated to his craft boxer but a bit naive when it comes in the business of boxing.

Last Saturday night, I watched Canelo demolish Chavez Jr. on HBO PPV. The number of the PPV buys appears to be high, the promotion was spotless, everybody was a professional, the only thing that was a complete let down was the fight itself. But who cares? Right? Wrong. The fans care and most importantly those that buy the tickets. Those that in the end feel like fools.

It was branded as a true Mexican battle. Well, the fighters were indeed Mexican but the fight truly wasn’t. The fight was a tune up fight. An expensive tune up fight.

Chavez Jr. simply wasn’t up for the challenge, although he came at the right weight, he wasn’t at all, ready to fight someone like Canelo.

For Canelo on the other hand, he was the perfect opponent, at times Chavez Jr served as a dummy, a sparring partner, receiving so many mighty blows from different angles with very little way of evicting them.

Except from this fight, Chavez Jr. no longer trains with consistency and three good months of solid training couldn’t undo the neglect of the recent years. The rust has settled… It will take a lot of persistence and perspiration to come back to the level that he was 5 years ago.

For Canelo it was another job well done. Quick on his feet and strong as always.

And now that this fight is over, a new better one is unfolding, Canelo vs. Golovkin is the blockbuster fight of 2017.

It has the ingredients to be a classic. The fans will have a lot to talk about it for the days, weeks and months to come.

Boxing needs real gutsy fights, real contests that excite fans and give good credibility to the sport we love.

It’s way too early to speak about anything else, both training camps are preparing their strategies, studying their opponent.

Anything is possible until the September 16th and for sure we will have a lot more to discuss both about inside and outside the boxing ring.