By Jeff Aranow: Saul “Canelo: Alvarez is still fuming at the World Boxing Council for them giving his vacated WBC middleweight title to mandatory challenger Gennady “GGG: Golovkin without him having to fight for it inside the ring like he had in winning it off of Miguel Cotto. Canelo complains that he had to beat Cotto in 2015 to earn the WBC 160lb belt, and then the WBC just gave his title to GGG after he chose not to fight him.
Canelo had ample time to take the fight with Golovkin, but he chose instead to defend the WBC belt against welterweight Amir Khan last May. This was a missed opportunity for the unbeaten redheaded Mexican star to fight Golovkin to do what champions are expected to do in defending against their mandatory challengers. Canelo decided to fight Khan in what some boxing fans saw another business fight instead of a competitive one.
“I won that belt with blood, sweat, sacrifice, a great training camp, by beating Miguel Angel Cotto,” Canelo said to latimes.com. “When I vacated it, they gave it to the other guy like that, without making him drop a bead of sweat. He didn’t even go through a single training camp and they gave it to him. They put it on the table. That’s not an organization you can respect.”
Canelo win back the WBC title if he agrees to fight Golovkin next September. It’s as simple as that. Instead of being upset at Golovkin winning the WBC title outside of the ring, Canelo should focus on trying to face him and beat him to take it back. It won’t be easy though. Golovkin is a lot better fighter than the guys that Canelo has been fighting since he lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013. Canelo should be fighting Golovkin this Saturday night instead of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Canelo could have had the Golovkin fight in May, but he chose to fight Chavez Jr. in what is viewed by the fans as a business fight.
In hindsight, Canelo should have fought Golovkin instead of Amir Khan. That was a very questionable move that Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy made in selecting the sometimes fragile-chinned former light welterweight champion Amir Khan to fight instead of Triple G. They should have known that this move would lead to a lot of boxing fans jumping ship and no longer being fans of his. It was a move that some boxing fans felt was initiated one of greed to take the easier fight against Khan for money without much of any risk involved.
There would have been deal of risk for Canelo had he taken the tougher fight against Golovkin. But with the way that Canelo talks constantly about his legacy and how he wants to be seen as the greatest Mexican boxing star ever, it would have been better for him if he tried to walk the talk. When push came to shove, Canelo chose to vacate his WBC middleweight title instead of fight Golovkin. You’d like to think that Canelo wishes he had that move to do all over again so that he would have taken the GGG fight instead of ducking it. What’s troubling is Canelo hasn’t said that he regrets giving up his WBC title rather than taking the fight with Golovkin.
You would have liked to have heard Canelo admit that he made the wrong move, because it would show that he was brave enough to take the fight. But he hasn’t said anything about him making the wrong decision, which makes one think that Canelo would make the same move if he was presented with the same situation today with Golovkin being his WBC mandatory challenger all over again.
Canelo won the WBC middleweight title in beating the much smaller looking Cotto by a 12 round decision in 2015. It was a close fight that was decided in the last 6 rounds when Cotto decided to try and slug with Canelo instead of boxing him like he’d done in the first half of the fight. By the smaller Cotto coming straight to the much heavier looking Canelo, it enabled him to use his size to get the better of the action.
Canelo was then able to dominate remainder of the fight to get the decision. Canelo won, but it wasn’t impressive stuff because he should have been able to knockout Cotto due to his size, youth and power advantage over him. Canelo wasn’t putting his punches together in combination form enough to get the win. He was throwing too many single head and body shots, and he was never going to knockout Cotto doing that. It appeared that Canelo didn’t have the stamina to fight in a sustained way for him to get the knockout.
Canelo chose not to fight for the WBC commemorative title for his fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. this Saturday night. This was the recently created WBC belt that they wanted both fighters to fight for this Saturday. Canelo said he didn’t want to fight for the belt because of the “business interests” behind the belt. But some boxing fans think it’s just Canelo wanting to get back at the WBC for them ordering him to fight Golovkin when he was the WBC middleweight champion. Golovkin was a world champion already when he defeated Marco Antonio Rubio to become Canelo’s mandatory.
”Everybody has their own choice and he decided he didn’t want to fight for the belt,” Chavez said to latimes.com. ”But I don’t think he did it the right way because people misinterpreted what he’s done.”
Canelo will have a chance to face Golovkin in September if he wins the fight on Saturday night against Chavez Jr. in their match on HBO PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are lot of boxers and former boxers that think that Canelo can now beat the 35-year-old Golovkin, who they feel looked vulnerable and old in his recent win over Daniel Jacobs last March.
Golovkin mostly jabbed Jacobs from the outside in that fight instead of trying to knock him out in his normal fighting style. The abrupt change of style for Golovkin didn’t work well for him, because he didn’t have the size or the hand speed to get away with boxing for 12 rounds. When you’re slower and smaller than your opponent, you kind of have to go after them to slug if you want to beat them convincingly when they’re choosing to stay on the outside the way Jacobs was doing.
“Canelo is going to use his speed. Chavez Jr. is going to use his size,” said former world champion Marco Antonio Barrera to Fighthub.com about the Canelo vs. Chavez Jr. fight. “It’s going to be an explosive fight. Honestly, Canelo does have the advantages, but don’t be surprised if Julio can come out with the win,” said Barrera.
“Canelo Alvarez has a lot of advantages in that fight,” said Barrera about a future Canelo vs Golovkin fight. “I saw that fight, and I saw a lot of things he can take advantage of. You can tell that Golovkin has trouble with a lot of fighters with speed and they move a lot. I think Canelo can do a few of those things. If they fight in September, Canelo has a big advantage and he can take advantage of fighting up against him,” said Barrera.
