By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr. and many members of his boxing gym in Las Vegas are picking Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) to defeat Gennady “GGG Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) in their fight on September 16. Indeed, almost everyone interviewed at that gym are picking Canelo to be victorious over Golovkin.
The reason for them picking Canelo over Golovkin time after time is because they believe he’s got the boxing skills, speed and mobility to get the better of Golovkin. They don’t say much about size, reach, power and the experience advantage that Golovkin over Canelo. They believe that the hand speed that Canelo has will be enough for him to defeat the 35-year-old Golovkin when the two of them meet up on HBO PPV in 4 months from now. The boxing fans are really looking forward to that Canelo-Golovkin fight. It could be the biggest fight of the year.
“With Triple G and Canelo, I’m siding with Canelo,” said Floyd Mayweather on the Mayweather Boxing Channel. ”The other day, I think they should have stopped that fight. That’s just my opinion,” said Mayweather about the Canelo vs. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fight. ”That guy Chavez was off a year. He was basically a punching bag,” said Maywather.
A big win for Golovkin over Canelo would make a lot of boxing fans forget about Mayweather altogether. With Mayweather only interested in a non-competitive mismatch with Conor McGregor, Canelo and Golovkin have taken over boxing.
You would have to believe that Mayweather would have a bias towards Canelo because he’s the only one to defeat the Golden Boy Promotions star. Canelo is the biggest win of Mayweather’s pro career; although he has fought guys that were arguably more talented than Canelo like Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo.
Canelo is the biggest win of Mayweather’s career because he was still in his prime and not on the downside and injured like Manny Pacquiao was. Mayweather didn’t get that much credit for beating Pacquiao because of his age and shoulder injury. Pacquiao was 36 by the time Mayweather finally agreed to fight him. It’s too bad Mayweather waited 6 years to fight Pacquiao, because that would have been his biggest win. If Golovkin defeats a prime Canelo without a catch-weight, it would make boxing fans forget about Mayweather’s accomplishment in defeating Canelo.
Mayweather had a catchweight handicap of 152 pounds for the Canelo fight. You better believe the catchweight weakened Canelo significantly enough for Mayweather to get an advantage over him. Golovkin hasn’t asked for a catchweight for the Canelo fight. Golovkin is facing Canelo without a catch-weight and in the prime of his career with him being 26. A victory for Golovkin would definitely overshadow Mayweather’s earlier win, especially if he knocks the redheaded Mexican fighter out. The boxing world will go crazy for Golovkin.
“I think Canelo is a better fighter now [than Golovkin]. He’s faster, stronger,” said Rosado to Villianfy Media in his opinion that Canelo is a better fighter than GGG. “Personally, I think Canelo is the favorite in that fight [against Golovkin]. Styles make fights. I’m looking at the styles. Canelo has got great movement. His defense is getting better. It’s definitely going to be an interesting fight. Those are guys that like to plant their feet and throw combinations. The people are going to get their money’s worth. It’s just a matter of who can take the heat. They’re going to land shots,” said Rosado about the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight.
I disagree with Rosado about his believe that Canelo moves well. I don’t think he moves well at all. Canelo has short legs and he’s not good at circling the ring. The movement that Canelo does is nowhere near as good as the movement that we saw from Golovkin’s last opponent Danny Jacobs. Movement is overrated. If you don’t have the talent to stand in the pocket and get the better of your opponent, then the only thing you’re going to achieve by moving is to tire yourself out. Canelo doesn’t have the stamina to move for any length of time against Golovkin.
Canelo can try to move if he wants to, but I think it would be stupid. Canelo has a short, wrestler’s body, and he’s not made to move around the ring without fading. Rosado must have confused Canelo with someone else if he thinks that he moves well. Canelo has never moved well. His legs are too short. He’s not built for movement. Canelo is built for slugging. If he deviates away from his normal game plan for any length of time, you’ll find Canelo red-faced, resting against the ropes to catch a breather.
Rosado lost to Golovkin by a 7th round knockout in 2013. Rosado wasn’t too happy about the defeat to GGG. You have to wonder whether Rosado is still smarting over the defeat to Triple G. I’m not sure if Rosado is the right guy to ask about a prediction for a Golovkin vs. Canelo fight. If Rosado had never lost to Golovkin, then maybe there wouldn’t be any baggage still following him around 4 years after that defeat.
It was not a competitive fight. Rosado’s face was a bloody mess by the 6th round, as Golovkin cut him up with some hard uppercuts. Rosado was hurt in the 6th and pulled out of the fight in the 7th round. For most of the fight, Rosado was running from Golovkin. It was a wasted opportunity for Rosado because he didn’t make a fight of it.
”I believe Canelo is going to win,” said world champion Gervonta Davis in giving his prediction of the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight to Mayweather Boxing Channel. ”I think Canelo has got the skills. Triple G has got the power, but I think with Canelo’s power and skills, he can pull it off,” said Davis.
Davis obviously believes Canelo’s hand speed and combination punching power be the key to him beating Triple G. We’ll have to see if Canelo can get past Golovkin’s jab. Canelo has only fought 2 fighters during his entire career that used their jab on him extensively and that was in his fights with Mayweather and Erislsndy Lara. Canelo won a controversial decision over Lara, and he badly lost to Mayweather. Canelo hasn’t shown the ability to handle a smart fighter that uses his jab. Golden Boy has matched against fighters that don’t use their jab in his last 5 fights.
Miguel Cotto used his jab in the first part of the fight against Canelo in 2015, but he started slugging with him in the last half of the contest and wound up losing. It’s academic that Cotto would have beaten Canelo if he stuck with his jab the entire fight. I don’t think Golovkin is going to need more than a jab to defeat Canelo, because he’s a counter puncher. Fighters that counter punch need their opponents to throw power shots for them to counter.
The worst thing that you can do to a counter puncher is jab them all night long and use movement. They don’t do well against fighters that jab and move, because it takes away their opportunities to counter. It forces them to lead and initiate their offense from scratch. That’s why fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez struggled when he fought guys like Terence Crawford, who jabbed and moved for 12 rounds instead of throwing power shots. Marquez had nothing to counter. I think Golovkin could end up turning Canelo into another David Lemieux by jabbing him all night, and not giving him any opportunities to land his left hook counter. That’s Canelo’s favorite weapon, and he mainly throws it when he’s countering his opponents.
”I’m going with the redhead,” said former world champion Eddie Mustafa Muhammad in giving his prediction for the Canelo-Golovkin fight. “The redhead has been learning on the job the last few fights. He’s been shortening up his punches and he’s learning. That’s the whole key,” said Muhammad.
As you can see, all the fighters interviewed are picking Canelo to beat Golovkin. It’s going to be interesting to hear what those fighters say in the aftermath if Golovkin wins the fight by a decision over Canelo Alvarez. Do those fighters ignore Golovkin’s win, like they did with his win over Danny Jacobs, and insist that Canelo was the real winner? I would hope that Golovkin gets credit because there are so many fighters that still say that he should have lost to Jacobs despite the fact that he dominated him for the first 6 rounds and knocked him down.
I have a feeling that even if Golovkin knocks out Canelo, the fighters and boxing fans that picked Canelo to win won’t give Golovkin credit. I think they’ll come up with some excuse for what happened, and then say that Canelo will beat Golovkin in a rematch. I don’t think for a second there will be a rematch if Golovkin knocks out Canelo. It would be too risky for Golden Boy Promotions to take a chance of putting Canelo in with Golovkin twice in a row after he gets knocked out.
It’s not just the potential of Canelo’s career as a PPV attraction being over with if he gets blasted out by GGG. There’s also the wear and tear involved in fighting Golovkin. Canelo is usually is in mismatches against guys that have little chance of landing anything on him. On September 16, Canelo is going to be getting hit a lot by Golovkin, and there’s going to be some wear and tear in this fight. I don’t care how good Canelo’s boxing skills are. He’s going to get hit with Golovkin’s jab and nailed with hooks and right hands. There’s going to be some serious wear and tear for the redheaded star.