By Dan Ambrose: Andre Ward says the major question leading into the September 16 fight between Saul Canelo Alvarez and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin is whether GGG is simply too big for the 5’9” Canelo. That’s the question that Ward feels is one of the most important things about the Canelo-Golovkin fight.
It doesn’t make much sense though, because Canelo is probably going to be the heavier of the two fighters. The two of them have an identical reach at 70”. The only real difference between them in terms of size is Golovkin is a little bit taller at 5’10 ½” compared to the 5’9” Canelo. That’s not enough of a size advantage for you to say that Canelo can’t win. If Canelo is going to be heavier than Golovkin with an identical reach, then size will have nothing to do with who wins or loses the fight What will make a difference is punching power, boxing ability and ring smarts.
The judges can also make a difference. Hopefully, we don’t see the judges ruin the fight like they sometimes do by coming up with oddball scoring that makes little sense. We saw some crazy scoring in Canelo’s fights with Floyd Mayweather Jr., Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara. Canelo was given win over Lara and Trout in fights that he probably should have lost. In the Mayweather fight, one judges scored it a draw.
That gives you an indication of what Golovkin is up against in facing Canelo. He might have to knock Canelo out to make sure he gets the win. I think the judges are probably the most important thing about the Canelo-Golovkin fight. Size is secondary in my opinion, because there’s no real difference between them in size other than Canelo being heavier.
“I think it’s a great fight,” said Ward to ESPN’s First Take about the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight. “[Oscar] De La hoya and Canelo did the right thing. They took their time; they allowed the fight to be built. They didn’t allow media pressure, media scrutiny to force them to get in there before they wanted to. They allowed Canelo to come up in weight a little bit higher to let his body get settled at a higher weight and make a few paydays along the way. Now it’s something people are talking about and it’s a big fight,” said Ward.
The boxing public would disagree with Ward about Golden Boy and De La Hoya doing the right thing by letting the Golovkin vs. Canelo fight marinate for 2 years. I don’t think the fight is better now than it would have been had it taken place in 2015. There was a lot of interest for the fight back then. I don’t see the interesting being substantially more than it was. The reason for that is Golovkin has had two fights in a row where he didn’t look good against Kell Brook and Danny Jacobs.
Golovkin won both of them, but he didn’t shine. Canelo hasn’t helped himself because he hasn’t been fighting good opposition. Canelo’s last 3 fights were terrible ones against no-hopers Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Amir Khan and Liam Smith. Chavez Jr. didn’t even try to fight. The fight was such a face that Canelo was trying to encourage Chavez Jr. to throw punches. It looked like a fake fight in the minds of a lot of boxing fans. That was a black eye for Canelo for sure. De La Hoya had said that Liam Smith was the best fighter in the 154 pound division.
For knowledgeable boxing fans, who are familiar with Liam Smith, it was impossible to take De La Hoya and the Canelo-Smith fight seriously. Smith was definitely not the best fighter at 154. You can argue that Smith was little more than the 20th best fighter in the division. If Golden Boy was just going to take it easy with Canelo in putting him in with guys that had no chance of beating him, then they should have forgotten about that and went straight to the Golovkin fight, because they weren’t going to build that fight up by matching Canelo against the likes of Smith, Khan and Chavez Jr.
“I don’t know. I think the questions going into the fight are boiling down to size,” said Ward. “Is Golovkin too big for Canelo? It’s tough to say, but that’s the beauty thing about our sport. We’re going to see who rises to the occasion,” said Ward.
It sounds to me like Golovkin won’t be getting much credit if he beats Canelo on September 16. If fighters like Ward are going to say that Golovkin won because of a size advantage, which isn’t an advantage, then it’s almost not even worth it for Golovkin to take the fight.
Golovkin isn’t too big for Canelo. I do think Golovkin’s jab and punching power is TOO good for Canelo, but he’s not too big for him. Having a small height advantage over Canelo doesn’t make Golovkin too big. For Golovkin to be too big, he’d have to have more than 1 ½ height advantage over Canelo. He’d have to have at least 3 inches in height, 2 or more inches in reach and at least a 10 pound advantage in weight. Golovki rehydrates to around 170lbs for his fights. Canelo’s weight is never revealed anymore, but there are some boxing fans who believe that he rehydrates to the 180s. The heavier fighter will be the bigger fighter. So instead of Ward saying that Golvkin will have the size advantage, he needs to be pointing that question towards Canelo. I think he’s going to be bigger.
One thing that Ward didn’t discuss was the age difference between the two fighters. He didn’t mention that Canelo is 26-years-old and Golovkin is 35. To me, that’s a much bigger deal than Golovkin’s slight height advantage. If one guy is just a little over 25 and the other nearing 36, you would think that the younger guy has the advantage in the fight. That to me is a lot more important than size. Like I said, I think the judging is perhaps the most important thing for this fight, because we’ve seen some odd scoring in Canelo’s fights in the past.
The boxing crowd at ringside on September 16 is going to be on Canelo’s side. Golden Boy promotions haven’t said yet whether the venue for the fight will be, but it’s expected to be in Las Vegas, Nevada. That’s going to favor Canelo, because a lot of his fans live in that city. If the fight were to take place in New York, then it would put Golovkin in a good position where the fans would be on his side. I don’t see the fight taking place there.
A victory for Golovkin won’t be due to him being the bigger fighter of the two. Canelo is plenty big enough to make it a competitive. We don’t need to hear excuses for Canelo losing the fight. I don’t want to hear excuses from Golovkin’s boxing fans either if he loses the fight to Canelo.n Some of GGG’s fans will say that Golden Boy waited until Golovkin got old before they made the fight. That’s crazy. Golovkin is still young enough to say he’s still in his prime.
