By John Tsoi: After the much anticipated middleweight showdown between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin, the boxing world immediately turned its focus on the judging issues and criticized how judge Adalaide Byrd came up with a ludicrous 118-110 scorecard in favor of Canelo. Amidst the overwhelming cries for NSAC to prevent similar incidents from happening again in the future, let’s look at what this explosive fight revealed to us about each fighter, including Canelo’s incredible defense and Golovkin’s unbelievable stamina at his age.
(Photo Credit: Tom Hogan/Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions)
Before the fight, many expressed their concerns over how well Canelo can take Golovkin’s famed power punches. Throughout the fight, although Golovkin failed to land his big clean shots on Canelo as seen in his previous contests, he still connected solid punches that were good enough to test the resolve of Canelo’s chin. As it turned out, the Mexican has a great chin as that he was never staggered or hurt at any point. On the other hand, Golovkin’s solid chin was also proven once again. Having been hit with several powerful counter punches from Canelo, especially the huge uppercut in the eighth round with 40 seconds left, and the massive straight right that landed flush halfway through the ninth round, Golovkin shrugged them off and continued to stalk Canelo. Many compared the Kazakh’s chin to that of a terminator, such that after the fight Canelo had to admit he tried but just couldn’t knock him out. When you have two boxers with excellent chins plus their styles, you are bound to witness an action-packed fight, which is exactly what we have enjoyed.
In the first two to three rounds, Canelo had success against Golovkin thanks to his hand speed and effective upper body movements. As expected, Golovkin would take the centre of the ring, while Canelo would move a bit and counter punch. The Mexican has superior hand speed over the Kazakh, as the former often got the better of the latter by outpunching and outlanding with quick combinations, including several decent body shots. Canelo’s head and waist movements were clear examples of his outstanding defense, making Golovkin miss many of his punches. When Canelo was on the ropes, Golovkin was sometimes hesitant to pull the trigger due to possible speedy counter punches and the way Canelo ducked the incoming punches. Most importantly, Golovkin’s right hand was not able to land cleanly since the start. Every time Golovkin threw a one-two, Canelo would move his head and sidestep, leaving the unified middleweight champion swinging at air towards the spectators. The Mexican counterpuncher essentially neutralized one of Golovkin’s important punching choices. Indeed, Canelo not only improved his offense over the years, but also his defense and the way he slips punches.
However, from the fourth to the ninth round, albeit doing the same things he did in the first three rounds, Canelo’s punch output started to decrease as many pundits have pointed out, while his movement around the ring increased. This might be caused by both Golovkin’s unrelenting pressure throughout the fight and the stamina of Canelo himself. It is incredible that at Golovkin’s age, he can maintain the stamina to cut off the ring and constantly pressure Canelo for almost the whole fight. Any other aggressive pressure fighters would have probably lost that type of stamina at his age. We should remember that he is fighting a top young fighter in his prime, forcing Canelo to move a lot in those rounds which is something we have yet to see from the Mexican previously. Perhaps, the continuous pressure of being stalked by a slightly bigger fighter with a near-perfect jab sapped a lot of energy from Canelo. Some fans like to call this “running”, but it is actually a smart move by Canelo, since his energy level at those moments would never warrant him to stay at one spot to trade with Golovkin. This is something that Peter Quillin mentioned in an interview, that Golovkin’s pressure instead of his power is to be feared.
Canelo’s stamina remains to be his biggest enemy in boxing. Before the big fight, people commented on how ripped and jacked he looked in his training photos. However, it is not always the case that bigger muscles translate to better performance in boxing. The body might fatigue more easily with the additional muscles. Although Canelo did not seem slower, it was obvious that he started to fatigue after the third round, which allowed Golovkin to claw back in two of the reasonable scorecards. The second wind that Canelo caught in the last three rounds were almost based on his amazing willpower. Had he not become fatigued, he might be able to win a clear decision with his precise counterpunching every time Golovkin comes in.
As Paulie Malignaggi said on Twitter, “Canelo was never in it once it passed about round 4 or so.” In terms of his stamina, this absolutely stands. When we look at middleweights like Golovkin, Jermall Charlo and Daniel Jacobs, their size is more on their height, while the shorter Canelo compensates it by his more stocky and muscular upper body frame. This might be an Achilles’ heel for Canelo when he faces top level middleweights in the future. He is used to significantly outweigh his opponents by rehydration in his past fights, for example, his fight against Miguel Cotto where he looked massive. Is it possible that he is too heavy during fight night than he should be? Perhaps, only few have pointed out his stamina issues in the past due to him being able to knock out his opponents or win in spectacular fashion. However, he did exhibit traits of fatigue in his previous fights, where he would slow down for a few rounds, go to the ropes to simply counter his opponents and get a breather. Could this also be ineffective conditioning under his S&C coach? We shall see when he fights more top-tier middleweights in the near future.
In my opinion, what makes the rematch so tantalizing is how both of these talented fighters would adjust after their first encounter. It is almost impossible to pick a clear winner for their second fight. Golovkin would need to adjust his strategy to land better punches after understanding first-hand how elusive Canelo can be with his defensive movements and how slow his punching was compared to the Mexican; while Canelo would need to address his stamina issue in order to cope with Golovkin’s pressure – a problem he has yet to successfully address in his career.
In boxing, we always want a winner and a loser. Despite the heated debate over the rightful winner of this September 16 fight, we should all appreciate the fact that Canelo and Golovkin are two boxers that embody the definition of what a great fighter should be. From living in poverty to reaching the pinnacle of boxing after years of blood, sweat and tears, both of them deserve huge amount of accolades with their showing of talent, skills and heart. As we always say, it takes two to tango, and they both surely showed up.