By Allan Fox: IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin wants his rematch with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez to take place at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, Mexico, according to Thaboxingvoice.
The problem with Canelo-GGG 2 taking place in Mexico City is the fight might not pull in the same amount of money as it would if they were to fight in Las Vegas, Nevada a second time. Golovkin doesn’t appear to want to take a chance of having the judges assigned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission take away another one of his victories.
Golovkin found out the hard way how difficult it is to beat Canelo in Las Vegas last September at the T-Mobile Arena. The judges scored that fight a 12 round draw despite Golovkin appearing to win a clear decision. One judge had Canelo winning 10 rounds to 2. It was as if Golovkin never had a chance to win by decision.
By Golovkin wanting the rematch with Canelo in Mexico, he’s got to be counting on his Mexican boxing fans supporting him in high numbers. It doesn’t make sense for Golovkin to push for the Canelo rematch in the red-haired star’s home country. If Golovkin thought it was difficult trying to beat Canelo by a decision in Vegas, he could find out that it’s even tougher to try and win a decision in Mexico.
Common sense would tell you that Golovkin’s best chance of winning a decision against Canelo would be to have the rematch staged in New York rather than Mexico, Texas or Las Vegas. Those 3 areas would greatly favor Canelo. Golovkin will likely have a far better chance of getting Canelo and Golden Boy to agree to stage the rematch in one of those areas than in New York. It’s likely a nonstarter to get Golden Boy and Canelo to agree to a rematch in New York, because then that would favor Golovkin or at least it would make things neutral.
It’s ultimately going to come down to Canelo where the rematch with Golovkin takes place. Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffer are not going to be able to use their muscle to get the rematch to take place outside of Las Vegas if Canelo is going to dig in his heels and insist that the fight take place there. The best thing that Golovkin can do is make sure that the judges don’t have any say so in the final decision.
Golovkin can do that by making sure he goes all out to KO Canelo. He didn’t do that last time he fought Canelo, and he didn’t do that when he fought Daniel Jacobs. Golovkin thought he could get by with the same game plan that he used against David Lemieux. Golovkin just jabbed them, and focused on using his boxing ability rather than going into the Triple G seek and destroy mode to go for a knockout.
In both cases, it was a mistake for Golovkin to fight like that, because he gave the judges power over him to do whatever they wanted. The judges almost gave Golovkin a loss in the Jacobs fight. That should have been a big hint that Golovkin cannot afford to box the more popular fighters if he wants to make sure he wins. Golovkin didn’t learn his lesson from the Jacobs fight, and he paid for it when he fought Canelo and found himself on the receiving end of a controversial decision.