By Dan Ambrose: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has been ridiculed by the boxing public for 2 years now for him choosing not to fight middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. While Canelo maintains that he wasn’t bothered by the things the fans said about him “ducking” Triple G, he apparently is bothered enough by their comments to now want take his aggression out on him when the two of them fight on September 16.
Whether Canelo wants to directly admit it or not, it bothered him to the point where he’s saying he’s “obsessed” with beating Golovkin.
“I never ducked anybody since I was 15-years-old,” said Canelo to espn.com. “I’m going to use all that motivation to take it out on him on September 16.”
Does that sound like someone that’s not bothered by being called a “ducker” by the boxing fans? When a fighter like Canelo gets to the point where they’re saying to want to “take it out on him,” that tells me that he’s got a major chip on his shoulder. But it doesn’t take this admission from Canelo to tell me that he’s got a chip on his shoulder. All you need to do is look at Canelo’s interviews during his 3-city press tour with Golovkin this week.
Canelo has seemed angry when asked about Golovkin. We’ve heard Canelo say thing like, “I saw nothing new from Golovkin,” in talking about Golovkin’s fight against Danny Jacobs. “He’s pretty much one-dimensional. I did see that when you have a fighter that is a little bit intelligent, and moves and boxes, he’s going to give Golovkin trouble.” Canelo went on to say that Jacobs should have won the fight over Golovkin by 1 to 2 points. Canelo’s face seemed angry while he was saying this. He’s been repeating this during many of his interviews. I guess he thinks he’s scoring points against Golovkin by telling the boxing media his views on the GGG-Jacobs fight. It comes across like Canelo is really angry at Golovkin. When Golovkin was told that Canelo has been saying about the Jacobs fight, he smiled and said, “Really? That’s his problem. He’s not accept boxing or what?” Golovkin looked like he was ready to laugh. The difference between the two fighters during this week has been like night and day. Canelo has seemed bitter, whereas Golovkin comes across as happy and complimentary of Canelo for the most part.
“It was made at the best moment,” said Canelo to ESPN about his fight against Triple G. “This was the best timing and the best moment.”
It might be the best time for Canelo that the fight with GGG has been made, but it’s not the best time for the fight as whole. You can argue that Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions waited until Golovkin was 35, and coming off of back less than sparking performances against Danny Jacobs and Jell Brook. That’s not the best moment for Golovkin that the fight with Canelo has been made. Again, it’s the best moment for Canelo.
Golden Boy could have waited another 2 years before they made the fight with Golovkin, but it would have been hard given the fiasco after Canelo’s fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on May 6 on HBO PPV. There were a lot of really angry boxing fans that were very unhappy about the lack of action and the lack of competitiveness in the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight.
Canelo, Chavez Jr. and Golden Boy had promised it was going to be a war. The fight wasn’t a war. It wasn’t even a route. It just looked like Canelo beating up on an over-the-hill, weight drained Chavez Jr. It was a bad idea by Golden Boy to have Chavez Jr. fight at a catch-weight of 164.5 pounds. It was a bad idea because it increased the chances that he wouldn’t be able to perform at a high level, which is what happened.
If Golden Boy thought they needed a handicap to make the Chavez Jr. fight, then they shouldn’t have chosen to match him against Canelo. It was already clear before the fight that Chavez Jr. hasn’t looked good in a fight since 2012. Why then do you have him fight at a catch-weight of 164.5 pounds? All that did was make Canelo look bad in facing him. To make exciting fights involving Canelo, you need guys that are at their best, and who aren’t over-the-hill or weight drained.
“My fights with Kell and Jacobs were regular fights,” said Golovkin. “Right now, this is history fight. The same,” said Golovkin in saying that he’s the same fighter he was younger. “I feel great, like a 25-year-old.”
Golovkin’s fight against Danny Jacobs was more than just a regular fight. That was a tough fight involving Golovkin fighting the No.2 guy at 160. Canelo is unproven at middleweight. You can’t call him a better fighter than Jacobs with his experience in the division being limited to the former WBC middleweight ‘catch-weight champion’ Miguel Cotto. Canelo hasn’t beaten a quality middleweight yet.
I’d favor Jacobs over. Until Canelo can prove that he can beat guys like Jacobs and Jermall Charlo, you can’t say he deserves to be put in a higher class by GGG. If Erislandy Lara moved up to 160, it would look weir if Golovkin started complimenting him, saying he’s a history fight and Brook and Jacobs “regular fights.” Lara would be no different from anyone that moves up in weight from the 154lb class. Canelo is moving up in weight from the 155lb class that he created.
“I’m not really concerned about it,” said De La Hoya about the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor fight. “That fight doesn’t affect this fight. This is the real fight. This is the middleweight fight the fans have been clamoring for a long time. This is bringing boxing back to the glory days,” said De La Hoya in talking about Canelo vs. GGG.
De La Hoya says he’s not about the Mayweather-McGregor fight, but he should be worried. That fight can definitely hurt the PPV numbers for the Canelo-Golovkin fight. I don’t know if De La Hoya understands the economics for many of the boxing fans that pay to see expensive PPV fights. A lot of the boxing fans aren’t rich. When you ask a fan that’s not making a lot of money to purchase 2 pay-per-view events within 3 weeks of each other, a lot of those fans are going to make a choice in ordering one of them but not both. I’m sure Canelo-Golovkin will bring in good PPV numbers. But I think it’s going to be hurt big time by having the Mayweather-McGregor fight take place ahead of it. It’s impossible to know how many PPV buys the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight will be losing on account of the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were a ton. That’s why it’s in Golden Boy’s best interest to stage a rematch between Canelo and Golovkin.
If they Canelo and Triple G fight again once Mayweather goes back into retirement to enjoy the money that he’ll be getting from the McGregor fight, then there’s a lot of revenue that can be made in the Canelo-GGG rematch. Hopefully, Mayweather doesn’t decide to come out of retirement again so that he can stage another fight weeks ahead of the Canelo and Golovkin rematch. Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past Mayweather. I could see Mayweather wanting to upstage the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight no matter how many times the two guys face each other. It might be hard for Mayweather if he keeps selecting MMA fighters to fight instead of boxers. I don’t think there will be a huge demand by the casual boxing fans to see Mayweather fight another MMA guy after he beats McGregor on August 26.
“Canelo is a good fight. He’s biggest fight in boxing,” said Triple G. “Sometimes,” said Golovkin when asked if he likes Canelo.
See how complimentary Golovkin is about Canelo. He’s not ripping him apart. He’s taking the high road.
“I have nothing against him personally, but when it comes to boxing, I have an obsession to beat him,” said Canelo about Golovkin.
So it looks like Canelo has an “obsession” to defeat Golovkin. That’s what I meant when I said Canelo has a chip on his shoulder due to the boxing public calling him a ducker for the last 2 years. The only way that Canelo can prove the boxing fans wrong is by him beating Golovkin and doing it in an impressive fashion.
“This is boxing. If I have a chance, he’s finished,” said Golovkin when asked if he’ll try and knockout Canelo.
Both fighters are going to go for the knockout in this fight. Golovkin has the better chance of accomplishing that task, as he’s the far better puncher. Canelo looked weak in his recent fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Canelo’s power didn’t come up with him when he left the 155lb division that he created.
“At 26-years-old, I fought the most difficult fights at my age,” said Canelo in defending his resume, which arguably is filled with a lot of weak opposition. “I feel confident of my abilities and the experience and the fighters that I’ve faced to get me to this point. Obviously, I feel my training regimen and my dedication to the sport is going to take me to get the victory,” said Canelo.
Canelo has fought 3 good opponents – Austin Trout, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Erislandy Lara – during his entire 12-year pro career and he arguably lost all 3 fights. Boxing News 24 scored Canelo-Trout in favor of Trout, and Canelo-Lara in favor or Lara. We already saw how Mayweather dominated Canelo in beating him by a 12 round decision in 2013. That wasn’t even a competitive fight.
“I believe we’re bringing boxing back,” said GGG. “Right now, everybody wants this fight.”
Canelo vs. Golovkin can bring boxing back, but I think they’re going to need to fight at least 2 to 3 times in order to do that, because I think the Mayweather-McGregor is going to hurt the sport just as bad as the Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao fight did in 2015.
“I don’t feel that I have to prove anything,” said a defensive sounding Canelo. “At 26, I’ve already fought the best fighters out there.”
Canelo says he has nothing to prove to the boxing world, but he does whether he wants to admit it or not. The boxing world thinks that Canelo has been ducking GGG, and that means he has something to prove. Canelo says he’s fought the best, but that’s only true in 3 of his fights. Those fights are as follows:
– Floyd Mayweather Jr.
– Erislandy Lara
– Austin Trout
Those are the best fighters that Canelo has fought during his career in terms of them being in their prime. Canelo has fought Miguel Cotto, but he was 35, and definitely not in his prime. Cotto has been beaten by Austin Trout, Mayweather and Antonio Margarito.
Here are the rest of guys that Canelo beat that he calls the “best fighters out there” in the sport:
– James Kirkland
– Amir Khan
– Liam Smith
– Shane Mosley
– Kermit Cintron
– Matthew Hatton
– Alfonso Gomez
– Josesito Lopez
– Miguel Cotto
– Alfredo Angulo
– Jose Miguel Cotto
It’s pretty clear that Canelo hasn’t fought the best out there. Mosley and Cintron were good fighters in the past, but they were not in their prime when Canelo fought them. They were long in the tooth and well over the hill. Canelo does have a lot to prove. With him saying he has an “Obsession” to beat Golovkin, he’s admitting that he has a lot to prove. Canelo doesn’t seem to be keeping track of the different things he says. He might as well admit that he has a ton of stuff to prove, because he doesn’t have quality wins on his resume. His victories over Trout and Erislandy Lara were both controversial.
Not surprisingly, Golovkin doesn’t like the comparison of the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight to his match against Canelo. You can totally understand where GGG is coming. Mayweather hand-picked an easy mark with no boxing experience in McGregor. The casual boxing fans are the ones that will give up their money and feel sorry for having done so if the fight turns out to be as boring as Mayweather’s last 3 fights against Andre Berto, many Pacquiao and Marcos Maidana.
“It’s a little bit different. This is business show,” said Golovkin in comparing the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor fight to his bout against Canelo. “It’s a big event, a business event. We have true boxing event, because we both respect the sport, boxing sport. This is different. Everybody understands this. If you want to watch funny show [then watch Mayweather-McGregor]. If you want true show, true boxing show, then September 16th,” said Golovkin.
