By Dan Ambrose: Juan Manuel Marquez says Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) must face Kazakhstan star Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) in his next fight after his May 6 match against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Marquez says that all Mexican wants to see Canelo fight Golovkin. The boxing fans are really looking forward to that fight. Marquez thinks that Canelo can beat Golovkin if he fights an intelligent fight, prepares well, uses his speed, and uses his counter punching.
We still don’t know if Canelo will face Golovkin after the Chavez Jr. fight because there are a lot of things that could get in the way of the bout to keep it from taking place. Canelo could lose to Chavez Jr. That would mean a rematch. Canelo’s promoters Oscar De La Hoya has gone so far as to say that a rematch might be called for if the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight is merely close and brings in a lot of interest from the boxing fans.
If pulls a lot of PPV buys on HBO, that would be a very good reason for Canelo to fight Chavez Jr. in an immediate rematch. One major thing that could keep the Canelo-Golovkin fight from happening is if Golden Boy don’t want to give Golovkin an offer that is a fair one. For example, if they decide that he’s not worth more than 10-20 percent split of the revenue, then it’s highly unlikely that Golovkin would agree to that money. Golden Boy realizes that time is on the 26-year-old Canelo’s side due to his youth in comparison to the 34-year-old Golovkin.
“Look, the fans have their point of view,” said Marquez to Fighthub.com about the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight. “I think the fight Canelo should have had was with Golovkin, but he took this one, which is a good fight and interesting. After this fight, we will see what route Canelo takes, but he has to fight Golovkin. That’s the fight everyone wants to see him in. It’s a close fight, a hard one. It’s a fight which I see Canelo having a possibility of winning if he gets ready the way he should. He’s a disciplined fighter and always prepares well and we hope the fight happens,” said Marquez.
I wonder if Marquez really honestly believes that Canelo can beat Golovkin. Does he really believe this or is he just saying that so he doesn’t take criticism from fans. Canelo’s biggest problem that could keep him from ever beating Golovkin is his poor stamina. Canelo only fights in brief spurts. He need rest breaks against the ropes. If he tries taking a break against Golovkin, he’s going to get worked over.
Canelo has a chance of beating Golovkin. He also has a chance of getting knocked out. We won’t ever know if he doesn’t take the fight with him. Right now, it’s hard to predict how Canelo will do against Golovkin. If we go on Canelo’s last fight against Liam Smith, I’d have to say that he would be knocked out by him. Canelo looked terrible against Liam Smith last September.
Canelo needed to rest against the ropes frequently, and he took a lot of shots from arguably the weakest of the 154lb champions. This clearly wasn’t the best junior middleweight champion in the division despite Oscar De La Hoya saying it was. Jermall Charlo was the best champion in the 154lb division at the time in my opinion. Golden Boy didn’t pick Jermall for some reason. They chose the easy to hit Liam Smith, who was slow and not even close to being the same threat that Jermall was.
If Canelo beat Chavez Jr. in a one-sided fight, there won’t be any reason for the two of them to face each other again. That doesn’t mean they won’t fight each other again. If their fight brings in a ton of PPV buys, it’s very possible that Golden Boy will want to put them back in with each other right away in September so that they can take advantage of the interest in the fight. I don’t think it really matters if Canelo beats Chavez Jr. with ease on May 6.
If the fight generates 900,000 or more pay-per-view buys on HBO, then I don’t see Golden Boy letting Chavez Jr. get away without locking him in for a second fight, but at more favorable terms for him than this time. Chavez Jr. isn’t getting the big money for this fight compared to Canelo. The split will be better for Chavez Jr. in a rematch.
Canelo and Golden Boy will upset a lot of boxing fans if they choose not to fight Golovkin in September. There are a lot of fans that are expecting that fight to happen at that time. De La Hoya and Golden Boy President Eric Gomez have been mentioning Golovkin as the opponent they want for Canelo in September.
With all their talking, it would look bad if they don’t have Canelo fight him. There will be a lot of fans that will be furious at Canelo and Golden Boy. I don’t think that they’ll be able to blame the fight not happening on Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffer. The fans are too wise to buy another excuse from Canelo and Golden Boy. We heard the excuse in the past about Canelo not being a full middleweight.
“All of Mexican wants to see that fight, and not just me, all the Mexicans and everyone on the world level,” said Marquez. Me personally, I think he has the possibility of winning if he fights an intelligent fight. Golovkin is strong, and exchanges punches and at the same time he punches hard. It’s a difficult fight for Canelo, but why not think he can win. He can win with speed and counter punching. But the power of Golovkin is what puts him ahead in every one of his fights,” said Marquez.
Marquez is completely different fighter than Canelo. His mindset is different. Marquez always wanted to fight the best. Marquez followed Manny Pacquiao up in weight in order to keep fighting him despite losing to him twice and fighting to a draw in another fight. If Marquez followed the same pattern that Canelo has with Golovkin, he would be lucky if he got 1 fight with Pacquiao during his career. The boxing world might not have had 4 great fights between Marquez and Pacquiao. At this point, the fans will be lucky if they
Canelo and Golden Boy have been resistant to pressure from the boxing fans and media for them to take the fight with Golovkin. They’ve stubbornly dug in their heels for the past 2 years under withering fire from the fans wanting them to take the Golovkin fight. In hindsight, Canelo’s popularity has probably been mortally hurt by his and Golden Boy’s decision not to sign for the Golovkin fight. A lot of fans now question Canelo’s courage. When fans question a fighters’ courage, you can imagine that they’re not interested in paying to see their fights. Canelo might be a more popular fighter now if he had simply gotten it over with and faced Golovkin and dealt with what would come from that fight. Just taking the fight with GGG would have made Canelo a bigger name, no matter what happened.
If Canelo doesn’t fight Golovkin in September, I think we might see his pay-per-view buys dropping off even more than they have since his fight with Amir Khan. There are certain fights that the boxing public expects a fighter to take. For Canelo, Golovkin is a fight that the fans expect him to take. Canelo is long overdue in making that fight. After Canelo fights Golovkin, the fans are going to expect him to face Jermall and Daniel Jacobs. If Canelo chooses not to face those guys, then he’s going to upset a lot of boxing fans. It would be bad news for his career.
What’s the point in Canelo moving up to middleweight if he’s not going to face Jermall and Jacobs? Once you get past Golovkin, there are only 2 really good fighters in the division and that’s Charlo and Jacobs. There are some decent middleweights like Ryota Murata, David Lemieux, Billy Joe Saunders and Hassan N’Dam, but the real quality guys are Golovkin, Jacobs and Jermall.
Canelo will need to fight all 3 of those fighters if he chooses to stay at 160 for a long time. It was bad that Canelo failed to fight Jermall when he was at 154. Canelo can’t keep ignoring the fight with Jermall if he’s going to remain at 160. Jermall is too good to be ignored. I won’t be surprised if the top junior middleweights like Erislandy Lara, Julian “J-Rock” Williams, Jermell Charlo and Demetrius Andrade all move up to 160 in order for them to be in the same division as Canelo. They know that he’s the money guy, and they’re going to be trying to get fights against him. Those are all dangerous fights for Canelo. He could lose them all. His win over Lara in the past was a controversial one. I don’t know if he would have beaten Lara if there was a different set of judges.
