Bradley: Canelo beats Golovkin, he’s very slow

By Boxing News - 10/20/2014 - Comments

canelo7344By Dan Ambrose: Welterweight contender Tim Bradley thinks that former WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (44-1-1, 31 KOs) will beat WBA Super World middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (31-0, 28 KOs) if they ever fight.

Bradley says he saw Golovkin’s fight last Saturday night against Marco Antonio Rubio, and he felt that Golovkin was totally slow in terms of his hand speed. Bradley thought that Golovkin had better hand speed than what he showed, and he wasn’t impressed at all with what he saw of him.

Bradley thinks that Canelo is bigger, smarter and with more experience than Golovkin. He feels that if they face each other, Canelo will have no problems beating Golovkin.

With the way that Bradley was talking about Golovkin, it was surprising that he didn’t include himself in saying that he could beat him as well. Bradley was so down on Golovkin, I thought it was only a matter of time before he had himself beating the Kazakhstan fighter in addition to Canelo. It’s good that Bradley didn’t include himself as someone he thought could beat Golovkin, because then that would have negated his entire opinion of Canelo being able to beat Golovkin. It would have been totally absurd.

“I got Canelo in that fight if they fight,” Bradley said via esnewsreporting. “I say Canelo because Canelo has boxing ability. His ability to take a punch. He took a punch from a strong puncher before. His IQ for the sport if very high. He’s got a lot of skills. We know what to expect from Triple-G. ‘I’m going to mow you down. I’m coming to get you.’ He’s just going to come out and bring the pain. He’s very composed with it, but Triple-G is very slow. I didn’t know he was that slow. I thought he was quicker. When I was watching him fight this last weekend I was like ‘He’s very slow. Maybe he was just warming up?’”

Golovkin isn’t the fastest guy in the middleweight division, but neither is WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev. Fast hand speed is helpful, but obviously it’s not the end all in boxing. If Golovkin catches his opponents with a big shot, it doesn’t seem to matter if they have more hand speed. He times them and whatever he hits, he hurts.

“I didn’t know he was that slow, but he looked very intelligent in his approach,” Bradley said. “He knew what he was doing. He knows how to get in position to land those hard shots. But like I said, I got Canelo. Experience. He’s been in better fights. He’s been in with the top level for a long time. He’d be able to take his power, no problem. He’s the bigger guy. He’s the bigger guy, no problem. I got Canelo in that fight if they ever fight,” Bradley said.

Bradley is definitely off about Canelo being bigger. They’re both actually the same size in terms of weight. Golovkin, 5’10”, is a little taller than the 5’9” Canelo, but Golovkin chooses to fight middleweights rather than welterweights and junior middleweights like Canelo. Both fighters weigh in the 170s for their fights, but Canelo is definitely not bigger than Golovkin. They’re the same size.

It sure would be nice to see if Bradley is correct about Canelo being so much better than Golovkin. Earlier today, Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya said that Canelo will be fighting Golovkin in the future. He didn’t say when, and it might not matter if Canelo gets beaten by WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto in their catch-weight fight next year in May. As big as both of those guys are in weighing in the 170s, I don’t see why they need a catch-weight. It makes no sense at all. Both are clearly middleweights in size, yet the fight will likely take place at a catch-weight below the full limit for the middleweight division.

Canelo looked pretty poor against Shane Mosely, Matthew Hatton, Floyd Mayweather Jr, Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara. If Bradley saw those fights and came away impressed, then that’s pretty scary. Canelo looked incredibly poor in all of those fights. It could be that Bradley has selective memory in thinking Canelo looked better than he actually did in the past, because he’s not looked good when he’s faced quality opposition or even against poor opposition.

I think Golovkin will knock Canelo out in 3 to 4 rounds unless Canelo runs, and I don’t think he can do that. Canelo will be another Marco Antonio Rubio.



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