By Sean Jones: Abel Sanchez notes that Saul Canelo Alvarez talked bravely before his last fight against Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin on September 16th on HBO PPV, saying he was going to go out and knockout the Kazakhstan star in front of the boxing fans at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. When Canelo chose to run from Golovkin, Sanchez was disappointed because he failed to live up to his bold words.
Sanchez points that instead of the 27-year-old Canelo trying to knockout Triple G, he ended up running from him throughout their fight, staying on the ropes and fighting like Floyd Mayweather Jr. by being defensive rather than offensive. Sanchez says he’s now hearing Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) talk in the same bold way as last time about wanting to knockout Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) in their rematch on May 5th, and not letting the judges have a say so in the final outcome of the fight like they did last time by scoring it a 12 round draw.
Sanchez is challenging the Golden Boy Promotions star Canelo to be a man of his word this time by coming out and fighting Golovkin instead of running from him for 12 rounds.
“Canelo is saying the same things he said before the first fight,” Sanchez said to RingTV.com. “He chose to run and not try to knock out Triple-G. He is talking brave again.”
Canelo will give it a game attempt at knocking out Golovkin, but his conditioning issues will likely limit his offense to the first minute of each round. It’s always been that way for Canelo. He’s good at the start of each round, but then he gets tired and wants a rest break. When Canelo has shown the ability to land big shots all throughout the rounds, it’s usually when he’s fighting totally over-matched opponent like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Alfredo Angulo and Josesito Lopez. Canelo didn’t fight at a fast pace against Liam Smith, Erislandy Lara, Austin Trout, and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Those fights were all fought at a slow pace with those guys not pressuring him enough to get him exhausted. Liam Smith did fight hard in the first 4 rounds, and he had Canelo gassed out against the ropes. However, Smith faded after 4 rounds, and let Canelo use him as a punching bag from that point on until scoring a 9th round knockout.
Canelo tried to knockout Golovkin with single pot shots in each round. Canelo would load up on 1 to 3 big shots in each round, but the problem is that wasn’t enough for him to hurt Golovkin. Canelo was just throwing pot shots in the same way Floyd Mayweather Jr. used to do, but he was throwing very few of them, and he was never going to knockout Golovkin – or any good fighter – like that. The problem that was holding Canelo back from going for a knockout was clear. He lacked the conditioning to fight hard and throw a lot of shots. Although Canelo looked muscular and in excellent shape, he fought like a poorly conditioned fat person, getting tired after throwing a few hay-maker shots, and needing to rest for prolonged periods of time on the ropes before his energy pack was resupplied enough for him to throw a few more shots. It was sad to see.
Any chances that Canelo had of winning the fight were essentially not there due to him not having the stamina to fight hard beyond the first minute of each 3-minute round. When you can only fight hard for minute No.1 of each round, then you’re not going to win a fight unless score a knockout or you get poor judging. Canelo didn’t get the win against Golovkin last September, but was given a 12 round draw by the judges, which was undeserved in the eyes of the boxing public. They didn’t feel that Canelo deserved a draw, and neither did the HBO commentators or the journalists on press row.
Canelo was seen as the loser of the fight, and no amount of spin by the Golden Boy Promotions employees about how their fighter deserved the win was able to change those viewpoints. Canelo was seen as the loser that was a gift draw. In the rematch against GGG, Canelo has a lot to prove. He may not realize, but he does. Canelo’s career as a popular PPV star could hang in the balance with this fight. If Canelo gets dominated again and is saved from a loss by the similar controversial judging as we had last time he fought Golovkin, you can bet that many of the boxing fans are going to start jumping overboard by no longer paying to see his fights on HBO PPV. That’s why it’s important that the judges get the results right this time. If Canelo loses the fight, then that needs to be reflected by the judges scores and not him being given another draw or a win. Canelo has 2 controversial wins during his career over Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara.
”It could be a different action fight if he is a man of his word and does what he says,” Sanchez said about Canelo. ”In order to KO Triple-G, you have to try and DO IT. It’s going to take more than pity-pat punches and running to accomplish that against the best fighter in the world!” Sanchez continued.
Canelo will try harder to knockout Golovkin in the rematch on May the 5th, but I don’t see him having any better success as he did the previous time he fought him. Canelo’s inability to hurt Golovkin will be tied to his stamina limits. To knockout good fighters, Canelo has got to be able to throw combinations in a sustained manner long enough to get the knockouts. When Canelo has stopped fighters in the past, it’s usually been after he’s hurt them with one of his pot shots. He then pours it on to get the knockout over the hapless opponent. Canelo just hasn’t knocked out good fighters.
These are best fighters that Canelo has knocked out during his career:
• Amir Khan
• James Kirkland
• Alfredo Angulo
• Josesito Lopez – moved up 2 weight divisions from 140 lb. division to fight Canelo at 154 in September 2012. It wasn’t exactly a fair fight to begin with due to Lopez having to move up 2 weight classes to fight Canelo
• Kermit Cintron
• Ryan Rhodes
• Alfonso Gomez
Sadly, that group of depleted, old and fragile-chinned fighter represents the best guys that Canelo has knocked out during his career, and many of them were shot fighters at the time he fought them. How sad. Rhodes was at the end of his career. Cintron had been considered over-the-hill for years at the time Canelo fought him. Angulo and Kirkland both had used their training camps to lose a great deal of weight to get ready for Canelo. They’d also been inactive for a long period of time. Amir Khan moved up 2 weight divisions from the 147 lb. division to face Canelo at middleweight. Khan has had problems taking hard shots from big punchers throughout his career. You hate to say it, but Canelo has never shown the ability to knockout good fighters. It’s not because Canelo lacks the power to knockout the best. The problem is Canelo lacks the stamina needed for him to throw enough punches consecutively for a long enough period for him to knockout the best fighters in the sport. If Canelo can’t throw more than 3 or 4 punches in a row without needing a rest break, he’s going to knockout Golovkin in their rematch on May 5. It’s not going to happen.
I don’t think Canelo is a knockout puncher at the highest levels of the sport. Canelo is a boxer and pot-shot type of fighter in the Mayweather realm. Canelo is obviously not a Mayweather type of talent in boxing ability, but he’s limited in the same way he was in what he can do and can’t do. At welterweight, the only guys that Mayweather could knockout were flawed fighters like Victor Ortiz and Ricky Hatton. At middleweight, the only fighter that Canelo has proven he can knockout is welterweight Amir Khan. You get the picture. Canelo is not a knockout puncher and he never will, especially at middleweight. As such, Canelo would be wasting his time if he tried to knockout Golovkin, because it’s not going to happen. Canelo ISN’T a true middleweight, and he never will be. Canelo DOESN’T have the conditioning needed to ever knockout an A-level 160 lb. fighter like Golovkin, and he never will have it in my view. Canelo is stuck with what he is and that’s him being a pot-shot fighter. Canelo will win some fights landing pot shots, but when he faces fighters that can force him to fight at a fast pace like Golovkin did in their first fight, he’ll come up empty. Canelo is going to have problems his entire career with his poor stamina. I see it getting worse for Canelo as he ages. Now that fighters know that Canelo can’t handle fighting at a fast pace, they’re going to make him boil over by forcing him to fight all out until he gasses out and winds up losing. There’s not much Golden Boy can do about Canelo’s problems with his conditioning. I think this problem is an issue that is beyond fixing. Canelo wasn’t built to fight hard for prolonged periods. He’s just a guy that can fight hard in the first minute of each round, and then he needs to rest his weary legs for the last 2 minutes of the rounds.