Canelo riding bicycle, working on cardio for Golovkin rematch

By Boxing News - 01/29/2018 - Comments

Image: Canelo riding bicycle, working on cardio for Golovkin rematch

By Dan Ambrose: Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez has gotten off to an early start with his conditioning program to get ready for his May 5th rematch against IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin on HBO PPV. Canelo posted on his Instagram him riding a bicycle and looking considerably thinner than the buffed-up bodybuilder look alike that he was for his fight with Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) on September 16th.

Canelo, 27, looks nothing like the fighter that he was in the first fight with the Kazakhstan fighter. Canelo faded badly after 2 rounds against Golovkin last September, perhaps due to the weight that he’d packed on for the fight in a brief period. But it looks like Canelo is going to be trying a different tactic for the rematch by coming into the contest thinner, and hopefully more able to fight hard for 3 minutes of each round without exhausting himself.

#caneloteam #noboxingnolife #training 👊🏻🚴‍♂️🎥 @miguelleone

A post shared by Saul Alvarez (@canelo) on

It’s questionable whether Canelo will be able to make much headway in improving his stamina, as he’s always had conditioning problems since he was a teenager. It’s possible that his cardiovascular system is hardwired at its current state and unable to be improved in any tangible way. If Canelo can’t improve his stamina for the rematch with Golovkin, then he’s going to need to be a little more strategic when taking his rest breaks against the ropes, because that’s where he had major problems against Golovkin last September in getting worked over by the jabs and power shots from the Kazakhstan fighter. Golovkin is going to be making sure that he pushes a faster pace than he did last time, because he saw for himself that Canelo turns red in the face and boils over when pushed to fight at a fast pace. Golovkin could have knocked Canelo out if he’d been willing to get in close and hammer him with shots for 12 rounds. Golovkin was too concerned with not letting Canelo look good for the early rounds. He didn’t realize that if he had been willing to take Canelo’s shots in making him fight hard, he would have eventually gassed out and been done by the mindpoint in the fight.

Canelo and GGG met last September at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight was largely ruined by the scoring from judges Don Trella and Adalaide Byrd, who turned scores that didn’t reflect the fight that had transpired. Byrd scored the fight 10 rounds to 2 for Canelo in scoring it 118-110. Trella scored the fight 114-114 in scoring it 6 rounds for Canelo and 6 rounds for Golovkin. Trella gave Canelo round 7, which was a round in which he was getting pounded by Golovkin the entire time. The other 2 judges gave the 7th to Golovkin. Trella’s scoring of the 7th for Canelo saved him from losing the fight. If Trella had given the 7th to Golovkin, as the other 2 judges had, he would have won the fight by a 12 round split decision instead of the fight ending in a controversial 12 round draw.

“It’s a special moment for the sport when two of boxing’s most accomplished competitors-both in their prime- agree to meet again in the ring to settle who is the man in the middleweight division,” said Peter Nelson, Executive Vice President, HBO Sports. “Canelo vs. GGG 2 is the boxing event of the first half of 2018 and we are pleased to present it live on HBO Pay-Per-View.”