By Sean Jones: Abel Sanchez is expecting a much different Saul Canelo Alvarez to turn up for the rematch with Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin on May 5th than the one that we saw on September 16th last year for the first fight between them.
Canelo fought passively by running from Triple G, and throwing defensive punches that weren’t thrown in an effort to win the fight. Sanchez says that boxing public is putting pressure on Canelo for the second fight to go out fight Golovkin this time, and not run from him or hide on the ropes like Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) lost to Mayweather 5 years ago in 2013, and he seems to have taken parts of his game and added it to his own. Fighting on the ropes is just one of the things that Canelo appears to have copied from Mayweather Throwing pot shots is another thing. Canelo is now a pot shot fighter rather than a combination puncher.
Sanchez says the reason Canelo was booed last September after his questionable 12 round draw with Golovkin is because the fans were disappointed with the way he fought. They paid their hard-earned money thinking they would be entertained with an exciting fight, but instead they saw a boring 12 round fight. Canelo was the major reason for the fight being a dull affair due to him choosing to move constantly, and not stand and fight Golovkin.
“He knows what he did. He’s the one that got booed when he was trying to get interviewed,” trainer Abel Sanchez said to Fighthub about Canelo. “He got booed by 80 percent Mexicans in the arena, so he’s the one that has to live up to what he says he’s going to do. He’s going to knockout Golovkin, he said, and yet he’s not fighting in a style to knockout Golovkin. In order to knockout someone, you have to stand there and knock them out instead of throwing punches in desperation just to show off for the judges. He said it the first time, and he’s saying it again. Hopefully this time he doesn’t disappoint the fans,” Sanchez said.
I don’t think Canelo really means it when he says he’s going to go out and knock Triple G out on May 5th. That’s likely a public relations move on Canelo’s part in order to sell tickets and get the boxing public to purchase the Canelo-GGG fight on HBO pay-per-view. The previous fight between them brought in 1.3 million PPV buys on HBO. For the rematch to bring in those numbers, the boxing fans have to believe the fight will be more exciting than the previous one. The promotion is already getting off on a bad foot by Golden Boy Promotions and Tom Loeffler choosing not to have a press tour.
Instead of a press tour, they chose to have just 1 fan event, which took place last week in front of a half-empty crowd at Microsoft Square at L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles. Without a press tour to get new boxing fans interested in seeing the rematch, they have to hope that the boxing fans that paid to see the first disappointing fight will want to see the rematch. That could be a big mistake. The fight was so bad in terms of lacking excitement. Canelo brought out the worst of Mayweather’s style by imitating him, but not having the talent to do the things that made him so great. Canelo spoiled the entire fight. The controversy with scoring of the fight, it ruined the whole fight, which was already a terrible one.
“Of course, it makes it a more difficult fight, but it makes it more difficult for us to give the fans what they deserve,” Sanchez said. ”We had a fight 2 years ago that was 5 years too late [between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao], and it was a disappointment, as was this one, because of a guy [Canelo Alvarez] on the other side didn’t want to do what he promised the fans he was going to do. That’s why they booed him after the decision. So, I believe he’s going to get the pressure on him to come through with what he said he was going to come through with. I expect that there’s going to be pressure on him to do that,” Sanchez said.
Canelo’s comments last week about how it would be stupid if he came right at Golovkin and fought him, it suggests that he’s going to fight defensively in the rematch. You don’t make comments like that unless you’re planning on fighting another defensive match like the first one. Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya is enabling him to fight the same way against Golovkin by telling the boxing media that he saw him winning by a 117-111 score last September. In other words, De La Hoya thinks Canelo deserved to win by the 9 rounds to 3. That’s almost as bad as the 10 rounds to 2 score that judge Adalaide Byrd turned in for the Canelo-GGG fight. De La Hoya’s score is only 1 round off from Byrd’s score. When Canelo hears De La Hoya saying he deserved to win by a 9 rounds to 3 score, it basically sends a message to him that he should fight the same way he did last time against GGG. That means more running from Canelo and less fighting. It puts the entire burden on Golovkin to make the fight an exciting one, because Canelo is just going to run and spoil for 12 rounds and hope the judges give him a decision win with that style of fighting.
”He said it before, but after the 1st, 2nd round, he decided it was a better idea to get on his bicycle,” Sanchez said about Canelo. ”I expect him to do it just because he has the pressure on him. I’m not saying they’re going to go toe to toe and throw caution to the wind and destroy each other, but they’re going to have to throw combinations with the intent to hurt somebody,” Sanchez said.
Canelo fought the first 2 rounds in the first fight, but as soon as Golovkin started attacking him in round 3, he went into shutdown and stayed that way until the 12th. Canelo wasn’t fighting except at the very start of each round in rounds 3 through 11. He didn’t have it in him to fight hard for more than 30 to 45 seconds of those rounds. Canelo did the same thing in the 12th. He fought hard for first 30 seconds, and then took it easy until the last 15 seconds.
“You cannot knock somebody out throwing the combinations that he was throwing in desperation to influence the judges,” Sanchez said. “He’s going to have to sit there and throw punches with bad intent just like he did against Liam Smith just like he did against [Miguel] Cotto just like he did against [Alfredo] Angulo. He’s going to have to throw those punches. While he’s doing that, he’s going to that, he’s going to have to put himself in the range where he can be hit back. I think both guys are big punchers, and the guy that lands the first big punch and hurts the other guy is going is going to win. I think they’re both great finishers too,” Sanchez said.
Canelo fought much differently against Angulo, Cotto and Liam Smith than he did against GGG. The reason Canelo could do that against those fighters is because they’re not huge punchers and none of them were natural middleweights. Angulo, Cotto and Smith were/are junior middleweights. Canelo had the size advantage against all 3 of those guys. Canelo wasn’t going to stand and fight Golovkin because he’s a natural middleweight, and he punches hard without needing to load up on his shots. Canelo can punch when he loads up, but he can’t punch with that kind of power effortlessly the way Golovkin can. Canelo gets tired when he loads up on his shots, and he needs to rest afterwards. Golovkin can punch with major power without it tiring him because he’s naturally stronger than Canelo.