By Dan Ambrose: Former middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs was in a state of shock last Saturday night after witnessing the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Gennady “GGG” Golovkin fight being scored as a 12-round draw in their “Supremacy” fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) saw it as a decisive win for Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) over the smaller, more popular Canelo Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs), who he noted only fought in “spurts” instead of for the entire rounds. Like many people in boxing, Jacobs saw Golovkin controlling the fight with his jab against the shorter 5’8” Canelo, who did very little from the 4th round on. Jacobs says he saw Golovkin dominating from the 4th or 5th round on against Canelo. The fight being ruled a draw didn’t surprise Jacobs though, because he sees it as the politics of boxing in which the more popular fighter Canelo isn’t given a defeat when he should have been.
Jacobs, 30, says Golovkin’s size was a crucial factor in him dominating the shorter Canelo. He felt that Canelo didn’t have the size to get to Golovkin enough for him to win the fight.
“It was a very, very exciting fight, but I got Triple G winning the fight, guys,” said Daniel Jacobs on his social media site. ”Size matters in boxing. Canelo had the better offense. Canelo had an amazing offensive barrage in spurts. In spurts, Canelo fought. In the later rounds, when it actually mattered, when the size mattered, when the power mattered, Triple G was able to withstand and continue. It was a good fight though,” said Jacobs BEFORE the scorecards were announced for the Canelo vs. GGG fight.
Canelo would land some shots from time to time, but it wasn’t a “barrage” that he was connecting with. Canelo would throw 1 or 2 shots, and only rarely did both shots connect. Golovkin wasn’t in range for Canelo to land a “barrage” of punches, as he was able to move away to make the shorter-armed fighter miss with his punches. Canelo did a surprisingly poor job of countering Golovkin’s jabs during the fight. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya had said for weeks that Canelo would counter Golovkin’s jabs and nail him with left hooks to the body, but neither of those things happened with any regularity. Canelo did land some body shots, but not very many. Golovkin could jab Canelo all night with his power jab, which he was shooting out and catching him continually.
Here’s Jacobs’ reaction after the results of the Canelo-Golovkin fight were announced:
”You knew it. Listen, let me tell you guys something. If you believe Canelo did enough to get a draw, then [expletive], and I don’t usually swear. That’s crazy. I’ll fight either guy, but I really thought Triple G won the fight. So, we came up with a draw. Canelo fights in spurts. Canelo, in my opinion, did absolutely nothing from round 4 and 5 on to receive a draw, but what you guys are looking at is politics at its finest. At the end of the day, this is boxing for you,” said Jacobs.
Jacobs was right about Canelo only fighting in spurts. That’s the reason why it was impossible to give him the decision. Canelo was trying to steal rounds rather than win them outright. Golovkin was using a blue-collar approach to the fight in taking the fight to Canelo, pressing him constantly to win the rounds. Canelo was moving away from Golovkin in every round of the fight. This was clearly something that Canelo’s trainers had put together for him to try and beat Golovkin. They saw how Kell Brook and Jacobs could avoid Golovkin’s shots by using movement. However, Canelo wasn’t doing anything when he was moving. He was just stalling out the rounds. I guess the idea was for Canelo to avoid Golovkin’s pressure with the movement, and then land a few shots to win the rounds. In other words, Canelo was trying to move, fire off shots, and then move so more. The problem was Golovkin was on top of Canelo in closing the distance quickly to get to him, and then tag him with shots to the head with his jab and power shots. Canelo was boxing Golovkin, but he wasn’t throwing enough punches to win rounds in a conclusive manner.
”I thought Triple G won,” said Jacobs. ”I thought he did enough. His jab was on point. It took him a while to get into the rhythm of things against the younger, slippery, faster guy. A draw, that’s crazy, guys. They want to make that fight again. I thought Gennady won,” said Jacobs.
Jacobs says he wants to fight Canelo or Golovkin next. Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy will probably match him against Miguel Cotto next in December in a retirement fight for the Puerto Rican fighter. Jacobs might not ever get a fight against Canelo. Golden Boy hasn’t made a fight between Jacobs and Canelo all these years.
I can’t see that changing now, especially with the way that Golovkin exposed Canelo for being a smaller fighter that can’t handle a jab, and who can’t fight hard for more than 1 minute of every 3-minute round. Cotto is retiring after December, so Golden Boy will likely look to match Canelo against him as a going away fight. Golovkin will almost surely be matched against Canelo in May of 2018 on Cinco de Mayo holiday weekend. Canelo-GGG 2 is too big of a fight for it to take place in December.
Golden Boy will wait until the next Mexican holiday to take advantage of the many boxing fans celebrating and wanting to see a good fight. The Canelo vs. GGG rematch is a lot bigger if they schedule it for Cinco de Mayo than if they put the fight on for December. Golden Boy inserted a rematch clause in the original contract for the Golovkin fight, but it only works one way in Canelo’s favor. If he wants the rematch, then the two to them can fight each other again. If Canelo isn’t interested in fighting Golovkin a second time, then he can move on without having to fight him again.
Golovkin: Canelo is a dancer
Golovkin said Canelo did nothing but dance against him during the fight by moving frequently, and not standing and fighting with the ‘Mexican style’ that he wanted him to. Golovkin wanted to make it exciting for the boxing fans that were paying to see them fight. Canelo had other ideas though. He was thinking of survival.
”I wanted a big drama show,” said Golovkin to ESPN. ”I was pressing every round. I think I win. Maybe I give him 3, maximum of 4 rounds. Did you see the reaction from all people? Right now, all fans understand whose champion. I controlled my left, so many punches,” said Golovkin.
As you can see, Golovkin wasn’t too pleased with finding himself on the receiving end of a controversial decision. This really shouldn’t surprise Golovkin, as it was said for the 2 months leading up to the fight that Triple G needed a knockout for him to avoid getting robbed. Since Golovkin didn’t get the knockout, he should be happy that he wasn’t given a loss, because that could have happened. It’s obviously bad news for Golovkin to be stuck with a draw, but at least he can now get a second fight against Canelo.
If Golovkin had lost, Canelo could have told him to get in the back of the line like he and Golden Boy did to Erislandy Lara when he was beaten by Canelo by a controversial 12 round split decision in 2014. That was 3 years ago, and Lara still hasn’t been given a rematch. Golovkin at least is lucky enough to have a chance for a rematch. That’s not to say the rematch against Canelo will happen, as Canelo said after the fight that it’s up to the boxing fan if he’ll fight GGG again. That sounds like Canelo is passing the responsibility on to the fans rather than him being assertive and saying he wants a second fight.
”He’s not boxing Mexican style,” said Golovkin about Canelo. ”It’s not. He’s a dancer. I’m ready,” said Golovkin when asked if he wants a rematch with Canelo. ”If the second fight is the same, you win 6 to 10 rounds, you win 8 or 10 rounds, and people say, ‘draw,’ or ‘you lost.’ It’s very bad for boxing. I’m champion. I’m pressing every round. I’m controlling every round. Maybe I give him 3 rounds, that’s it,” said Golovkin about Canelo Alvarez.
Canelo was not using a brawling style of fighting like Golovkin wanted him to. Canelo doesn’t slug with an opponent unless he’s got a guy that is over-matched like Amir Khan, Liam Smith, Alfredo Angulo or James Kirkland. Most of the time, Canelo seems to imitate Floyd Mayqeather Jr. with his fighting style. Like Mayweather, Canelo likes to go to the ropes and fight with his back against the ropes.
“No, truthfully, not really. There wasn’t any power that surprised me. In the first rounds, I came out to see what he had,” said Canelo about Golovkin’s power. ”Then I was building from there. Yes, of course I want the rematch. Obviously, if the people want it, then yes.”
Canelo was not in the mood to give Golovkin any compliments after the fight, which is too bad. It wasn’t a good look on Canelo’s part for him to be so negative during his interview with HBO Boxing after the fight with Golovkin. The fans booed Canelo’s poor sportsmanship, and they cheered Golovkin, because he showed more class after the fight during his part of the interview.
There it is with Canelo leaving it up to the boxing fans about whether he’ll fight GGG again. I think that’s a weak move on Canelo’s part. He should be able to tell the media that he wants to fight Golovkin again instead of leaving it up to the fans.
“It’s a big drama show,” said Golovkin. “I want to thank all my fans. I want to thank all my Kazakhstan fans for supporting me, for coming out. Of course, I want a rematch. This was a real fight. Look, I still have all the belts. I’m still the champion.”
Well, it’s now up to Canelo and Golden Boy to determine whether they want to setup a second fight against Golovkin. They need to be aware that Canelo’s reputation will suffer badly if he doesn’t take the rematch with Tripe G. Canelo’s rep has already taken a big hit by him getting a controversial draw that he arguably didn’t deserve. The last 2 fights for Canelo have been bad ones for him and his promoters at Golden Boy.
Before the GGG fight, Canelo fought a weight drained Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in a fight that failed to live up to the expectations on May 6. It was a terrible fight to watch, as Chavez Jr. was so weak and weight drained, and he couldn’t throw punches. It just looked like Golden Boy had pulled in a guy with no chance of beating Canelo for him to look good against. The boxing fans were very upset about the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight. Instead of the Canelo vs. GGG fight making up for that fight, the boxing fans got an even wore result with a controversial draw.