By Dan Ambrose: Saul Canelo Alvarez is defending the way he fought middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG” Golovkin last September by saying he WASN’T running from him for 12 rounds the way his coach Abel Sanchez says he was.
Sanchez says Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) came into the Golovkin fight as a Mexican last September and left it as Floyd Mayweather Jr. Canelo was moving constantly for 12 rounds, and not coming forward to try and engage with Golovkin. Canelo says he was boxing and using the sweet science, but it looked like he was running from Golovkin in the eyes of the boxing fans.
“If he believes that’s running he’s an idiot.” Canelo said on Golden Boy instagram in responding to Abel Sanchez saying he entered the ring as a Mexican and left as Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Canelo, 27, can prove that he’s not a runner by going out and fighting Golovkin in a man-to-man war in their rematch on May 5 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Canelo says he wants a knockout. This is his big chance to show he can accomplish that. Golovkin, Sanchez and promoter Tom Loeffler are all saying that Canelo won’t be able to score a knockout with him running for 12 rounds. Canelo can use a different term for what he was doing last September to soften how it sounds, but it looked like he was running.
“No, it does not bother me, because he thinks he is a great coach and he does not know what boxing is,” Canelo said to ESPN Deportes in defending his use of constant movement against Golovkin. ”He does not know what boxing is, what it is to have technique, what it is to box, what it is to make a movement., to know how to adapt to the circumstances of the fight, and not just go forward, just forward throwing punches. This is boxing. I miss him saying he believes a great coach who cannot distinguish what it is to have technique with the other that says,” Canelo said.
It sounds like Canelo is going to be using movement as his main game plan for the rematch with Golovkin. It’s too bad because he’s not going to beat Golovkin by moving away from him, and he’s going to put the judges in a bad position where they’re going to look bad again if they fail to give the win to Golovkin this time. Canelo has to show some courage this time and fight Golovkin, because he’s not going to beat him by using movement. That’s not going to work for him. Canelo needs to fight this time. If doesn’t work out for him, then so be it. That’s how it goes sometimes. At least Canelo will know that he couldn’t measure up. But by running like he did in the previous fight against Golovkin, Canelo gave up only chance of winning by feeling from the battlefield.
Canelo didn’t give himself a chance to win because he wouldn’t stand and fight. It was sad because he’s been willing to fight smaller guys than himself during his career like Amir Khan and Josesito Lopez, Canelo didn’t run from those guys, but he definitely ran from Golovkin and it sounds like he plans on running again in the rematch. Hopefully there are quality judges that work the Canelo-GGG fight on May 5th, because it’ll be bad if we see another controversial decision.