By Dan Ambrose: Saul Canelo Alvarez’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya says his fighter is going to knockout IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) when the two of them face each other in September 2017. De La Hoya is saying the Canelo-Golovkin fight will definitely be happening this year, even though he’s not sure what’s going to take place with Canelo’s next fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on May 6. De La Hoya says Canelo will be knocking out GGG.
De La Hoya says he’s felt this way for a long time about his belief that Canelo will KO the 35-year-old Golovkin. It’s unclear why De La Hoya didn’t let Canelo fight Golovkin last May when he had the chance to have his redheaded Mexican star fight him instead of picking welterweight Amir Khan to fight. De La Hoya also doesn’t say why Canelo vacated his WBC middleweight title to avoid the Golovkin fight. If De La Hoya really believed that Canelo would knockout Golovkin, then it made no sense to have him vacate his WBC title to veer around him.
“I’ve always said we’re going to see Triple G-Canelo in 2017,” said De La Hoya to K.O Artist Sports. “The year for boxing is now, and we have in our hands the opportunity to bring back the sport. What Mayweather-Pacquiao did to boxing was terrible. We lost a lot of fans. This is the opportunity of the year to bring boxing back. Will we see that fight happen? Absolute! I strongly feel Canelo can carry boxing on his back with no problems for many years to come,” said De La Hoya.
I don’t see how De La Hoya and Canelo are bringing boxing back. They’re facing a non-relevant fighter in Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. next. If anything, De La Hoya is hurting boxing by skipping over Golovkin to match Canelo against Chavez Jr., who is not a great fighter and never was. Chavez Jr. is definitely not the fighter he once was back in 2012. Canelo facing Chavez Jr. is little more than a money grab in the minds of a lot of boxing fans. De La Hoya and Canelo are arguably doing what Floyd Mayweather Jr. did in fighting a past his best Manny Pacquiao in 2015.
Some boxing fans would listen to the bold comments from De La Hoya now about Canelo knocking out Golovkin and see this as another way for Golden Boy to try and increase interest in the Canelo vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fight on May 6. What better way to increase interest in a mismatch than to start name dropping Golovkin’s name left and right to make the boxing public think that Canelo will fight him next. Of course, when Canelo doesn’t fight Golovkin next in September, we could hear some excuses about him wanting too much money or this or that. In the meantime, De La Hoya would either match Canelo with David Lemieux or Chavez Jr. in a second fight. I’d be very surprised if the Canelo-Golovkin fight takes place in 2017. I think De La Hoya is going to age Golovkin some more by waiting until 2018 before he makes that fight.
Canelo still hasn’t become a crossover star in boxing. His fan base hasn’t grown. You can blame that on dull match-making by Golden Boy Promotions. They’ve not taken risks with Canelo since he lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. They put Canelo in with the fight with Erislandy Lara, which he appeared to lose but was given a decision win in 2014. Canelo never fought Lara again to clear up the controversy of their fight. There’s a lot of fights that De La Hoya didn’t put Canelo in to build up his popularity.
Even now, De La Hoya is matching Canelo against a fighter who hasn’t been relevant for 5 years in Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. The Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight made sense if it had been made in 2012, but not now. Chavez Jr. is no longer a top fighter. He’s just a guy that at one time a champion many years ago. That fight is like the same thing we’ve been seeing with De La Hoya matching Canelo against past their best fighters like Amir Khan, Miguel Cotto, Alfredo Angulo and James Kirkland. He didn’t match Canelo against those fighters when they were at the top of their careers. He made the fights when they were faded and over-the-hill partially over-the-hill. De La Hoya has now waited until Golovkin is started to show signs that he’s deteriorated due to age before seriously talking about wanting to put Canelo in with him.
“This is the most important year for boxing,” said De La Hoya. “Triple-Canelo; If Canelo wins, I hate ever mentioning him, because I don’t know what’s going to take place and happen, but if he wins, we’re going to see that fight happen. There’s no doubt about it. I’ve always said that Canelo is going to knockout Triple G when they fight. No doubt about it,” said De La Hoya.
I don’t remember De La Hoya saying that Canelo would KO Golovkin. Whatever the case, De La Hoya had the chance to make the Canelo-Golovkin fight when Triple G was in his prime 1-2 years ago, but he wouldn’t do it. Now he’s talking bold after Golovkin’s off performance against Danny Jacobs. That fight has De La Hoya sounding cocky. I think it’s possible that De La Hoya would stall the fight if Golovkin were to fight someone else before the September date and look sharp.
Canelo couldn’t knockout Miguel Cotto. That tells you a little something about Canelo. He couldn’t knockout Mayweather. I don’t think Canelo can knockout good fighters that are the same weight as him. Canelo doesn’t KO the better fighters. He’s only shown himself to beat the lesser fighters like Liam Smith, Amir Khan, Angulo and Kirkland. I think if Canelo tries to knockout Golovkin, he’ll be knocked out himself, because he’s tailor-made for Golovkin. Canelo can’t move around the ring like Golovkin’s last two opponents Daniel Jacobs and Kell Brook.
Canelo is more like a combination of Gabriel Rosado and David Lemieux. He’s a stocky fighter with short legs, who doesn’t have mobility. It’s going to be an easy fight for Golovkin. I do think Golovkin will need to knockout Canelo to get the win, because I can’t see the judges giving Triple G a decision win. We saw how Lara was arguably robbed against Canelo, and we also the ridiculous scores for the Canelo vs. Austin Trout fight, which should have been a draw if not a win for Trout. Golovkin will need to make sure the judges don’t have a say so in the scoring fight the fight because I don’t think they’ll ever give Golovkin a decision win over someone as important ad Canelo is for boxing,
“People say he got exposed. People say he got out-boxed, whatever it was against Jacobs. It was a good fight,” said De La Hoya. “It was close. But like every fighter, Triple G has his vulnerabilities. He’s human like everybody else. But mark my words, when Canelo and Triple fight, Canelo is going to knock him out. That’s going to be my prediction when the fight takes place. The fact that he looks vulnerable, does that give me the right to make the fight happen faster? It just proves to me what I’ve been saying all along what will take place when Canelo and Triple G fight. I just feel that Triple G is a strong fighter, he’s a good fighter, and he’s a great ambassador for the sport. But when Triple G and Canelo meet, it’s going to be bombs away. That’s what I’m excited for as well,” said De La Hoya.
Canelo isn’t a knockout type fighter when he’s facing guys his own size. The reason why Canelo doesn’t get knockouts against the betters fighters is because he doesn’t have a good engine to keep throwing enough punches in combination form to get the knockouts, If you notice that Canelo needs to take rest breaks after he throws punches. He’s getting worse at this despite being only 26. He can’t put his shots together without having to back up and catch his breath. He fights more like someone 10 years older than his chronological age. Canelo does not have good stamina.
Canelo took a lot of heat in fighting welterweight Amir Khan last year. He then vacated the WBC middleweight title and dropped down to 154 to take on arguably the weakest of the 4 junior middleweight champions in Liam Smith. De La Hoya said at the time that Canelo was fighting the best 154lb champion in Liam Smith, but few boxing fans believed that. The fans have seen Jermall Charlo and Jermell Charlo, and they obviously knew that this was yet another soft match for Canelo.
Will Canelo eventually knockout Golovkin? Yes, I believe that at some point in the distant future, Canelo will knockout Golovkin, but we’re probably talking five or more years from now. If De La Hoya waits long enough until Golovkin is completely over-the-hill, Canelo will definitely knockout Golovkin. But I don’t think that’s happen anytime soon.
