Jermell Charlo & Porter pick Canelo to beat Golovkin

By Boxing News - 02/19/2018 - Comments

Image: Jermell Charlo & Porter pick Canelo to beat Golovkin

By Sean Jones: Jermell Charlo and Shawn Porter both are picking Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez to defeat IBF/IBOWBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG” Golovkin in their rematch on May 5th on HBO PPV. Charlo doesn’t have much to say other than Canelo is the breadwinner for Golden Boy Promotions, who is the lead promoter in the rematch.

Canelo was given a controversial 12 round draw in the first fight against Golovkin last September in Las Vegas, Nevada. The boxing public saw Canelo losing a clear decision by 4 to 6 rounds. Very few fans thought Canelo won. With the controversy surrounding the scoring of the first Canelo-Golovkin fight, judging will be extremely important for the rematch. The sport can’t afford to have 2 controversial outcomes in a row for the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight.

“I actually give him credit. Canelo throws some monster punches,” Jermell said to Fighthype. “Canelo, he’s got speed. People don’t even recognize the speed that he has. He doesn’t have a jab. I have a jab. Nah, I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Jermell said when asked if the winner of the Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 fight will face him or his brother Jermall Charlo. “I don’t think my brother will fight Triple G. We’re going to keep calling for it, because we want his [expletive]. Canelo will win the rematch. That’s their [Golden Boy Promotions] breadwinner,” Charlo said.

You did notice where Charlo give his reasons for why he thinks Canelo will beat Golovkin, didn’t you? Charlo mentions Canelo being their “breadwinner.” Charlo could be right. Canelo is a popular fighter, and that could make it tough on Golovkin to get a decision unless he knocks him out this time.

Canelo was unable to land his jabs the entire fight against Golovkin. Canelo was helpless when Golovkin stood on the outside and jabbed. The only time Canelo could land anything at all was when Golovkin would throw a power shot. Canelo would throw his counter punches. If Golovkin fights on the outside like he did last time and focuses on just throwing jabs, he can shut Canelo out the way Floyd Mayweather Jr. did. However, with the way the judges scored the last Golovkin-Canelo fight, it’s not practical for Golovkin to simply box Canelo from the outside.

Golovkin should be able to stay on the outside and take advantage of Canelo’s short arms and jab him all night long the way he did in the first fight, but I don’t think he can count on the judges giving him the win if he fights like that. Canelo is a very popular fighter. To beat the popular guys, you need to do more than dominate them. You’ve got to either knock them out or give them a beating. Golovkin will need to turn this fight into a war of attrition like he did with Kassim Ouma for him to be given a win over Canelo in my opinion, and even then, it might require for him to knockout the popular Golden Boy Promotions star.

Shawn Porter thinks Canelo will beat Golovkin in the rematch due to his jab. Porter says Canelo was hitting Golovkin with jabs all night long last September. Porter might have the 2 fighters mixed up though, because Canelo wasn’t the one landing the jabs. It was Golovkin. Canelo was coming up short with his jabs, which were hitting air due to his arms being too short for him to connect when Golovkin was on the outside. Jermell seems to have a better memory of the Canelo-Golovkin fight than Porter, as he correctly states that Canelo didn’t have a jab. So, you kind of have to ignore a lot of what Porter says about the Canelo-Golovkin 2 rematch due to him being dead wrong about Canelo’s jab.

”I had it a close decision for Triple G,” Shawn Porter said to Fighthype about the Canelo-GGG fight last September. ”I think Canelo will be a little bit sharper and win the rematch. I didn’t have it clear. It was maybe 2 or 3 rounds where it could have gone either way. But if I were to have to play the devil’s advocate and name just 1 winner, I swayed in Triple G’s direction for a number of reasons, mostly because his aggression throughout the fight. Canelo hit him with every jab he threw. I think the rematch is going to remove to Canelo using his jab and setting everything else up from there. If Triple G can get out of the way of that jab and make Canelo uncomfortable about throwing his jab, then it’ll be a long night,” Porter said.

The rematch between Canelo and Golovkin will be decided on who the better conditioned fighter is. Golovkin knows now that he can’t just box Canelo from the outside and count on the judges scoring the fight in his favor due to him dominating him for 3 minutes of every round. It’s going to take a real beat down by Golovkin for him to be given the victory. The best way for Golovkin to do that is to take the fight to Canelo, slug with him nonstop for 3 minutes of each round, and prevent him from running like he did last time.

Canelo was only able to fight in brief spurts against Golovkin. Canelo would throw some punches and then take off running to his left. Golovkin made the mistake of being too far on the outside to prevent Canelo from feeling to his left. If Golovkin had stayed close to Canelo like he was in the later rounds, he would have prevented his escape route. From rounds 9 to 12, Golovkin was on top of Canelo, forcing him to brawl and getting the better of him. Canelo had turned red in the face from being forced to fight the full 3 minutes of each round. The only round from 9 to 12 that Canelo appeared to win was the 12th, and that was a close round. Canelo let his hands go because he knew that he was going to be able to rest after the round was over. Canelo can’t fight like that in every round because he doesn’t have the stamina.