Golovkin trashes Canelo over Chavez fight: Reading between the lines

By Boxing News - 06/07/2017 - Comments

Image: Golovkin trashes Canelo over Chavez fight: Reading between the lines

By Adam Godfrey: With over three months to go until their long anticipated Mega-Fight, the usually reserved Golovkin has fired the first shot across the bows of his upcoming opponent Canelo Alvarez. Golovkin said in an interview yesterday with TMZ:

‘it was very interesting for me – because why couldn’t he stop him or knock him down? He looks terrible. He must [get the knockout]. If he has so much energy, so much power [by choosing to stand between rounds], then show me in the next round. After first round [you stand between rounds to show off], then stop him in the second round. That was to show muscles, maybe for girls’

Interestingly, this is in contrast to the tact employed by Golovkin when he was interviewed in the ring following Canelo’s fight with Chavez. He praised the performance of the Mexican, saying that he was impressed with how he had handled the bigger Chavez and that he had looked good in beating him via a totally dominant unanimous decision. The consensus was that Chavez Jr was appalling in that fight, and that he had been nothing more than a punching bag for Canelo due to the severe weight drain he endured to meet the 164.5lb limit imposed upon him by his opponent’s promotional company, Golden Boy.

Praise for a fighter who destroys an opponent so enormously overmatched is usually faint, so it seemed slightly disingenuous of ‘GGG’ to be talking up the display of his rival, especially in the light of his words yesterday criticizing Canelo for not knocking out a foe who seemed there for the taking.

So why the change of heart? Perhaps the fight looked different to Golovkin while he was sat at ring-side than it did when he watched the fight back as it appeared on TV. This is not a point of view I ascribe to, as there was no ambiguity in analyzing the performance of Chavez Jr, it was patently pathetic. Perhaps he was nervous in the presence of his upcoming opponent and offered praise as a way to negate these nerves? Again, this is a point of view that is difficult to argue, considering ‘GGG’ is a man who has systematically destroyed virtually every opponent he has ever faced, Danny Jacobs being the only exception in recent years. Fear is not an emotion experienced by many elite Boxers, even less so by the man who is poised to soon overtake Bernard Hopkins as having the most successful Middleweight title defenses in Boxing history.

In all likelihood, the change of heart is a deliberate tactic to add an edge to the promotion as it grows in stature. Legitimate tension between Boxers is a dynamic that, if properly managed, can add an extra dimension to proceedings that raises the stature of the bout in the minds of the public.

Not since Curtis Stevens has Golovkin faced a man willing to denigrate him; Stevens trash talked and disrespected the Kazakh personally, claiming he would ‘f— Gennady Golovkin up’. He went even further, posting a picture on Twitter of he and his entourage paying mock respects over a coffin emblazoned with the Golovkin’s famous initials. As it happened, the attempts to get under the skin of Golovkin did not pay dividends, the expression of shock etched across Stevens’ face after he ate a left hook that knocked him to the canvas in the second perhaps revealing a certain amount of regret that he had piped up quite as loudly as he had. Suffice to say, making Golovkin angry is probably not a great idea, and has not been attempted since.

But Canelo is not Curtis Stevens. Far from being known known as a trash talker himself, he has, however, become noticeably more irritated of the disrespect he perceives as having been aimed at him following bouts against opponents weaker than him (either physically or in terms of ability), all the while seemingly refusing to push for a fight with Golovkin. Miguel Cotto was often seen as never being a legitimate Middleweight, Amir Khan was a blown-up Welterweight (at best), Liam Smith has never been talented enough to hang with Canelo in a month of Sundays, and Julio Cesar Chavez was inevitably severely weight drained, rendering him a human pummeling bag. In his own words, not being one to ‘f..k around’ it must be difficult for Canelo to palate being called so many names by so many people, and one would hope he will take this irritation out on Golovkin in both the run-in to the fight and the fight itself.

Now that Golovkin has dropped the first major artillery strike of the campaign against his opponent, will we see a swift and equally damning retort? It is hard to tell, and for one very good reason; Canelo does not speak English. Golovkin’s remains slightly broken and he has a penchant for repeating himself, but he has clearly made considerable strides in improving his grasp of the language that Boxing usually conducts itself in. To effectively trash talk you have to, you know…talk. We will not be treated to the ebb and flow of the vocal battle that punctuated the Pauli Malignaggi v Adrien Broner fight, for example. That fight was made considerably more interesting thanks to the unique personal animosity between both, and the way they went back and forth was a joy for the neutral fan to observe. (If you really want to know, even though Broner won the battle of the fists, I thought Paulie won the battle of the mouths).

We shall not be getting this from Canelo v Golovkin. Golovkin will lay down a burn, inevitably with a wide smile on his face, and it will be responded to by Oscar De La Hoya, a translator, or not at all. It is a shame that we will be deprived of the two talking smack to each other in a way that is enjoyable to experience.

Fortunately, Golovkin’s trainer, Abel Sanchez, is no shrinking violet, and has often taken up the mantel of Golovkin’s spokesman in the face or criticism or doubts about his CV/ability. Sanchez has never been afraid to speak his mind even to the chagrin of some of Golovkin’s fans, and of course he will not stop during this promotion. This should add at least some spice as the two fighters meet each other in press conferences etc. It is not the same, but it’ll have to do.

So, there we have it, round one of the verbal’s to Golovkin. We know that we are not going to see press-conference fireworks between the two, much less a bare-knuckle preview of the actual fight, but hopefully this is the start of a drumming up of excitement for the fight and that the two will attempt to land at least some pitter-patter vocalized jabs before they punch each other for real.

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