By Dan Ambrose: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) is viewed as the underdog in his fight against Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) on September 16, but not in the mind of Floyd Mayweather Jr. The 40-year-old Mayweather sees nothing special in Golovkin’s game that makes him feel that he’s a threat to beating Canelo.
Mayweather says there’s 3 guys that can beat Golovkin besides just Canelo. Mayweather didn’t get the names of those fighters, but in the past he’s called for Golovkin to move up to 175 to fight Andre Ward. It could be that Ward is one of the guys that Mayweather has on his list of fighters that he thinks can beat GGG.
“I really believe Triple G has good punching power as a fighter,” said Mayweather. ”He’s got good punching power, but he’s flat-footed. He makes a lot of mistakes, but boxing is different now.”
Mayweather says Golovkin makes a lot of mistakes, but he must be doing something right for him to still be unbeaten. GGG just beat Danny Jacobs. I’m not sure if Jacobs was one of the 3 fighters that Mayweather previously thought would beat Triple G. If so, then Mayweather will need to alter his list of fighters that he thinks that can beat Golovkin from 3 to 2 now. If Canelo fails to beat Golovkin too, then that list will drop to 1.
Hopefully, Mayweather isn’t asking Golovkin to move up to light heavyweight and take on Ward or Sergey Kovalev, because that’ll undercut his entire argument. A list only makes sense when it involved fighters NEAR the same weight class as a fighter. Asking Golovkin to move up 2 weight divisions to fight someone from light heavyweight isn’t a fair thing. Mayweather didn’t move up to middleweight when he was fighting at welterweight. We didn’t see Mayweather fight Golovkin at 160 despite the Kazakhstan fighter volunteering to take the fight with him.
“Do I think Triple G can beat Canelo? Absolutely not,” said Mayweather. ”I think there’s a few guys that can beat Triple G, and Canelo is on the top of the list. I believe that he’ll beat him.”
If Canelo fails to do the job against Golovkin, Mayweather is going to have to eat some humble pie and come up with someone else that he thinks can beat him. Hopefully, it doesn’t become forlorn with Mayweather picking guys endlessly that he thinks can do the job on GGG, and winding up failing each time with his predictions. It probably doesn’t look good for Mayweather to have Canelo beaten by Golovkin, does it? If you’re not counting Erislandy Lara, the last person that beat Canelo was Mayweather.
Lara appeared to beat Canelo, but found himself on the receiving end up a highly controversial decision in 2014. It looks good for Mayweather for him to be seen as the last person to beat Canelo. If Golovkin beats Canelo and knocks him out, then Mayweather will be replaced as the last person to beat the redheaded fighter. So instead of the boxing world frequently bringing Mayweather’s name up when speaking of Canelo, he would be replaced by Golovkin, who would be talked about when Canelo’s name is mentioned. Is that the reason why Mayweather thinks that Canelo will beat Golovkin? In other words, is Mayweather only picking Canelo to beat Golovkin out of wishful thinking rather than what he truly feels?
It would be sad if Mayweather is only picking Canelo over GGG because it benefits him if Canelo wins. You’d like to think that Mayweather is being honest when he makes prediction about the Canelo-Golovkin fight or any fight.
“I don’t think it’ll go the distance,” said Mayweather about the Canelo-Golovkin fight. ”Canelo Alvarez is one of the best fighters in boxing right now. I commend him. I take my hat off to him,” said Mayweather.
Mayweather is really pouring on the compliments for Canelo. Mayweather is a promoter. Is Mayweather hoping to promote Canelo in the future? I don’t think Canelo is going to leave Golden Boy Promotions anytime soon if ever. But it would be a huge positive for Mayweather if he signed Canelo to his promotional company Mayweather Promotions.
Canelo failed to knockout Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in their fight on May 6 on HBO PPV. That fight showed that Canelo’s punching power isn’t nearly as formidable at middleweight as it was when he was fighting at junior middleweight. That doesn’t mean that Canelo can’t knockout Golovkin. If Canelo can put his punches together, he could score a knockout of Golovkin. I can’t see it happening. Canelo doesn’t seem capable of throwing more than a half dozen punches consecutively without needing to take a breather to recover from exerting himself. Canelo has a terrible engine.
“I wouldn’t say just me. Yes, I think there are a few others that can beat him,” said Mayweather about him believing he can other 3 other unnamed fighters can defeat Golovkin. ”Alvarez will beat him.”
There is growing doubts among some boxing fans whether Golovkin has enough left at age 35 for him to get past the 35-year-old Canelo. Golovkin didn’t put on a sparkling performance in his last 2 fights against Danny Jacobs and Kell Brook. Golovkin beat both guys, but he took hits and he had a lot of problems in both fights. Jacobs skipped the IBF’s weigh-in on the day of the fight so that he could use the time to rehydrate more. It still didn’t work for Jacobs, as he fought poorly in the first 6 rounds against Golovkin and lost the fight. If Golovkin and Jacobs fight each other a second time, Golovkin will at least know what to expect from Jacobs in terms of him possibly skipping the weight check.
The odds-makers still favor Golovkin to beat the 26-year-old Canelo. Bovada has Golovkin as the favorite by the line -165. They have Canelo at +135. It Canelo can pull off a big upset of GGG, it would make Mayweather’s prediction come true. It would also keep Mayweather in the lofty spot as the only fighter to beat Canelo for the time being. Obviously, that can’t stay that way unless Golden Boy chooses to match Canelo against weak opposition for the remainder of his career. At some point, Canelo will lose again, and the only way he avoids that from happening is if he’s matched carefully and he retires when someone dangerous emerges as a risky opponent for him. We how Mayweather retired from boxing rather than fighting Golovkin, Keith Thurman or Errol Spence.
Golovkin could deal Golden Boy Promotions a HUGE setback by beating their franchise fighter Canelo in their big fight. Canelo has already been soundly beaten by Floyd Mayweather Jr. by a one-sided 12 round decision in 2013. The loss didn’t hurt Canelo’s career despite him looking bad and over-matched. The boxing public didn’t hold it against the popular red-haired star at the time because he was only 22, and had very little experience against quality fighters that were still in their prime. Canelo has won every fight since the loss to Mayweather.
Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya is counting on the Canelo-Golovkin fight to bring in the second biggest PPV totals in the history of boxing with him predicting the fight pulls in 3 million buys on HBO. It’s unclear whether that’s going to happen. What could hurt the potential of that fight bringing in record breaking numbers is the specter of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor fight, which is expected to take place around the same time. The fight hasn’t been signed yet, but it’s expected to be a done soon and announced. We could see Mayweather vs. McGregor in November or December. It would be bad news for the Canelo vs. Golovkin promotion if the Mayweather and McGregor fight each other this year, as the hype for the fight will grab the attention from a lot of the boxing fans. It’s not nearly as great a fight as the Canelo-Golovkin fight, but that doesn’t matter. The casual boxing fans are interested in seeing Mayweather fight the UFC star.
“With the heavyweight division being back with Anthony Joshua, you know with the Keith Thurman fight that was viewed by what, more than 5 million people on prime time TV, with Canelo-Chavez selling over a million homes — we’re expecting close to 3 million with Golovkin and Canelo in September,” De La Hoya said to Fighthub. “These are the types of fights that bring boxing back, and that’s exactly my mission – is to bring boxing back, bring back that excitement that people used to live for when watching boxing.”
It would be nice if Canelo and Golovkin bring in a lot of PPV buys, but I’m not sure if they will if they have to compete with the Mayweather-McGregor fight.