By Dan Ambrose: Danny Garcia says he thinks Gennady ‘GGG” Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) did enough to deserve the win against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) in their fight last September in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, Garcia says he’s siding with the 27-year-old Canelo to beat Triple G if/when they face each other in a rematch on May 5 on HBO PPV.
Garcia recently said that he thinks Canelo will “easily” beat Golovkin in the rematch. For some reason, he’s changed his mind and he sees it as just a win or Canelo. Right now, there’s no word whether the two middleweights will fight each other again. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya says it’s up to Golovkin if he wants the rematch with Canelo or not. That sounds like De La Hoya is trying to twist GGG to agree to negotiations that will favor his fighter Canelo. In contrast, Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez says the negotiations are almost completed, and there are just some small things that need to be ironed out.
“I thought it was a close fight,” said Danny Garcia to K.O Artists Sport about the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight last September. “I thought it came out either way. I probably would have leaned more for Triple G just because he looked like the stronger fighter,” said Garcia.
Garcia seems to believe that Canelo will make adjustments for the rematch for him to be able to defeat Golovkin. Garcia says he views the rematch playing out a lot like the first fight, which saw Golovkin using his height and reach to jab the shorter-armed Canelo from the outside. Canelo did well in the first rounds, but then was out-boxed by Golovkin from rounds 4 through 12. The judges scores [118-110 for Canelo, 115-113 for Golovkin and 114-114] were widely panned by the boxing public, who saw the judges as out of touch with the reality of the fight that took place that night. The fans booing Canelo while he was in the ring being interviewed afterwards was an indication that they weren’t pleased with the scoring.
”I think the second fight is going to be kind of the same way. I probably give Canelo the edge in the rematch,” said Garcia.
For Canelo to have the edge in the rematch against Golovkin, he’s going to have to be in good enough condition to carry around all the muscle weight that he packs on. Danny Garcia didn’t talk about it, but Canelo put on a great deal of muscle weight for the Golovkin fight. When the two were standing next to each other at the first press conference, Canelo looked small and considerably lighter than GGG. But then 8 weeks later, Canelo was huge. He was no longer smaller than Golovkin in terms of size. He was bigger than him, and he’d put that weight on in a hurry. It’s not easy to put that kind of muscle, and Canelo did it in just 8 weeks. Given the speedy way that Canelo bulked up for the fight, it’s not a shock that he was having problems with his stamina.
”I think Canelo beats him easy in the rematch,” said Canelo to ES News Reporting last October in giving his prediction of the Canelo-GGG 2 rematch. ”I think the only reason it was close is because he got tired, and I don’t think he was used to the weight. He couldn’t keep him off of him. It was steady pressure, but I think he watches the fight and sees why it was close. I think he beats him easy the second time,” said Garcia.
It sounds like Garcia is making excuse for why Canelo didn’t do well. It doesn’t matter that Canelo got tired in the fight. The fact is he got tired. If Canelo was knocked down or suffered a cut, Garcia could say he lost because of that reason. The fact is that Canelo got tired against Golovkin, and that’s why he appeared to lose the fight. If Canelo gets exhausted after 3 rounds in the rematch with Golovkin and fails to get the victory, then Garcia can blame his fatigue on another loss. There’s always some reason why a fighter loses. Garcia is making excuses for Canelo’s off performance. Garcia is suggesting that if Canelo had better stamina, he would have beaten Golovkin. Unfortunately, Canelo didn’t have the stamina, so it’s immaterial what MIGHT have happened. The fact is Canelo didn’t have the conditioning and he came up empty against Triple G. The rematch will be the same if Canelo doesn’t work on his conditioning. The truth is Golovkin has a better engine than Canelo. GGG carries the weight better than Canelo, because he’s a natural middleweight. That’s probably not going to change by the time Canelo and Golovkin face each other on May 5. Golovkin will still be the natural 160 lb. fighter. Canelo will be the guy that bulked up once again, which will force his cardiovascular system to deal with the added weight that he puts on.
It might be smart for Canelo to move back down to 154 if he’s unable to fight hard enough to beat Golovkin in the rematch. At least if Canelo is fighting at a weight that’s easier on his body, he won’t have the excuse that he was tired. Canelo was having fatigue problems even a 154. He gassed against Austin Trout and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Canelo’s wins were against a lot of vulnerable fighters like James Kirkland, Liam Smith and Alfredo Angulo. Canelo won’t be a failure if he can’t handle fighting at middleweight. The things that Golovkin exposes in Canelo will be brought out later when he faces other big middleweights like Daniel Jacobs, Billy Joe Saunders and Jermall Charlo.
Triple G won the fight,” said Showtime interviewer Jim Gray to K.O. Artist Sports in discussing the results of the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight. “The cards and judging was insane. Canelo got away with one,” said Gray.
What Gray says is pretty much what the boxing public is saying about Canelo in his fight with Golovkin. They think he lost and was saved by the scoring from 2 of the judges. At least Gray isn’t making excuses for why Canelo didn’t get the win.
”The longer it goes, the more it favors Canelo.,” said Gray. ”He’s the younger man, who is ascending. Golovkin is the older man. His finest day is probably in the rearview mirror. I thought he lost to Danny Jacobs. I thought he won against Canelo, but all of his fights now are very difficult. Age will take its toll. I hope they get it together. The public would like to see it. You never know how things will go with the promoters,” said Gray.
The longer Golden Boy and Canelo make Golovkin wait for the rematch, it favors him. Golovkin is 35-years-old, and he’s already lost 2 years waiting for the fight with Canelo last September. Golovkin is losing 8 months of his career waiting for the rematch with Canelo. It favors Canelo if he makes Golovkin age while extending the fight into the future. Of course, that favors the younger fighter Canelo. I don’t think Canelo is favored if the fight happens now. Golovkin doesn’t appear to have aged enough yet for Canelo to beat him.
Canelo fought a little bit better in rounds 10 through 12 against Golovkin. I don’t think that means Canelo will fight better against Golovkin in the rematch in the later rounds. If Canelo does fight better in the last part of the fight, he might be too far behind to win. We saw that in Canelo’s fight with Golovkin last September. Canelo seemed to be way behind in the fight when he rallied in the last 3 rounds. I gave Canelo 1 or the last 3 rounds. I had Golovkin winning rounds 11 and 12. Canelo rallied against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the last 3 rounds in their fight in 2013, but he still lost because had had been dominated in the first 9 rounds. If that happens in the rematch with Golovkin, it won’t matter that Canelo is finishing strong. He’ll have lost the first 9 rounds, and he’ll come up empty.
Danny Garcia lost his last fight 10 months ago to WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman on March 4 by a 12 round split decision. Garcia will be coming back next month to face Brandon Rios (34-3-1, 25 KOs) on February 17 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino, Events Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Garcia needs to beat Rios for him to keep alive his rematch hopes against Thurman.