Canelo needs to be braver against Golovkin says Lopez

By Boxing News - 12/31/2017 - Comments

Image: Canelo needs to be braver against Golovkin says Lopez

By Sean Jones: Trainer Kris Lightning Lopez says he thinks Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez is going to need to be braver against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin to have a chance to defeat him in their rematch on May 5.

Lopez says Canelo will need to take the fight to Golovkin a lot more than he did in their previous match on September 16. Lopez states that Canelo’s offense amounted to him throwing pot shots, which wasn’t enough to win the decision. The ended in a 12 round draw at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada

Even with Canelo fighting the perfect fight, Lopez still sees him losing unless Golovkin gets old overnight. Canelo isn’t comfortable coming forward against Golovkin, because he’s not used to getting hit as hard as he was hit last September. Before Canelo fought GGG, his fights were against guys like Alfredo Angulo, James Kirkland, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Liam Smith and Erislandy Lara.

Canelo usually had the size advantage over his opponents, and he was generally the bigger puncher. Kirkland was the only guy that had equal power to Canelo, but he hadn’t fought in nearly 2 years before being brought in by Golden Boy Promotions to face him.

“If he’s able to do both boxing and take the lead. Be a little braver,” said Kris Lopez to ITR Boxing. “Sure, he [Canelo] can beat him, but Golovkin has to get old overnight, as the saying goes. If he’s the same Golovkin, I just don’t think Canelo can stand there and trade with him long enough to be effective. He would be just reduced to pot shotting again,” said Lopez.

It’s hard to see Canelo taking the lead against Golovkin for 12 rounds. Canelo was given a pep talk by his trainer Eddie Reynoso after the 9th round, and he responded by pressuring GGG and doing a little bit better in rounds 10, 11 and 12. I still don’t think Canelo did enough to win more than 1 of those last 3 rounds. The 3 Nevada State Athletic Commissioned assigned judges gave Canelo rounds 10-12. I didn’t agree with that scoring. I thought Canelo was still only fighting the first 45 seconds of the championship rounds, and I don’t think he did nearly enough to win them all.

The Canelo-Golovkin rematch is said to be heading back to Vegas on May 5. That potentially puts Golovkin in a tough situation where he might need to get a knockout to win the fight. It would be best for Golovkin to not box as much as he did last time. There was nothing wrong with Golovkin boxing Canelo. If believe that if this were Floyd Mayweather Jr. that fought Canelo last September, he would have been the decision if he did exactly what Golovkin did.

Golovkin will need to do more, a lot more, for him to beat Canelo. Golovkin and his trainer Abel Sanchez likely know what changes they need to make for the rematch with Canelo. The way to beat Canelo is the way that Liam Smith was doing when he was wearing him down in their fight in 2016. Smith had Canelo looking exhausted against the ropes. Smith didn’t have the stamina to continue to push the pace, and he wound up getting stopped in the 9th round.

Canelo tried to walk Golovkin down like he’d done in his past fights against smaller and weaker fighters than him, but it didn’t work. Golovkin would back up a couple of steps and hit Canelo with a ramrod jab in the face. This would stop Canelo from coming forward each time. Canelo’s short arms kept him from being able to jab with Golovkin. Canelo wanted to counter Golovkin’s jabs, but he didn’t have the reach to do that. He was helpless.

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