By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Eddie Reynoso believes his fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is the more complete fighter than Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, and he’s quite confident that he will prevail on September 16 in their clash on HBO PPV.
Reynoso says the fight will likely end in a knockout. Further, Reynoso says that Canelo is faster and better defensively.
Canelo being the more complete fighter than Golovkin doesn’t mean he’s going to win the fight. If Golovkin is the stronger fighter, then that might be more than enough. Power tends to come out on top in boxing, especially when one fighter has the superior amateur background. Canelo didn’t have an amateur career. He’s been learning on the job as a pro under the careful guidance of Golden Boy Promotions.
Canelo fought timidly against Austin Trout after tasting his power midway through the fight. if Golovkin connects with something big early on, he could have Canelo fighting in the same frightened manner by him fighting off the ropes for the entire fight. Canelo can’t fight that way against Golovkin and beat him. The judges gave Canelo the win against Trout despite the fact that he was pinned to the ropes getting peppered by jabs the entire second half of their fight in 2013. Canelo won’t see the final bell if he fights in a similar manner by using the ropes and fighting in a turtle-like way.
Canelo, 27, hasn’t faced a big puncher yet that had a solid chin and good stamina. The biggest puncher Canelo has faced up to this point was James Kirkland, but he fell apart quickly in getting stopped in the 3rd round. Kirkland buzzed Canelo in the 2nd round. That obviously isn’t a good sign if you’re a Canelo fan.
Canelo cannot let Golovkin hit him the way that Kirkland did, because Canelo is not likely going to be able to hold up for 12 rounds if that happens. It would be a mistake for Canelo and Reynoso to bank on being able to knockout Golovkin out. If the knockout doesn’t happen, Canelo would be looking at taking punishing shots for the duration of the fight.
“We have confidence in our fighter,” said Reynoso to Fighthub about Canelo Alvarez. “He’s a more complete fighter, strong and he has what it takes to fight those types of fighters. These are the fights we want and what we dreamed of when we got into the sport to reach the big leagues and big fights,” said Reynoso in talking about the Golovkin fight. “So if we want to keep rising, we have to keep winning fights.”
Reynoso seems to have his head on straight on talking about Canelo’s path to rise to the top of the sport. Unfortunately, Reynoso is not the match-maker for Canelo. Golden Boy Promotions are the ones that make the fight for Canelo, and they’ve been protective of him for most of his career. There are a lot of top fighters at 154 and 160 that Golden Boy chose not to put Canelo in with.
To Golden Boy’s credit, they’ve decided to take a big risk with Canelo by matching him against Golovkin, but they waited until the Kazakhstan fighter was 35-years-old before they did that. It’s pretty obvious why Golden Boy has decided to make the Canelo-Golovkin fight. They see age and vulnerability in Golovkin now.
If Reynoso wants Canelo to keep rising in boxing, then he needs to lean on Golden Boy to insist that they match him only against the best. This means that if Canelo beats Golovkin, they can’t take the easy fights against the Miguel Cotto, Liam Smith, Alfredo Angulo, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Amir Khan type fighters. They need to match Canelo against the true best in the middleweight or junior middleweight division. It doesn’t work if Golden Boy picks out a flawed fighter from the 154lb division like Liam Smith for Canelo to fight, and then Oscar De La Hoya tries to convince the media that Smith is the best fighter in the junior middleweight division. Canelo needs to be matched against the true best, not fighters that are weak belt holders.
“He’s on the way, but there’s a lot of great fighters like Lomachenko, Andre Ward, Golovkin,” said Reynoso, when asked if Canelo is on his way to becoming the number 1 pound for pound fighter in boxing. “We have to beat the best up there.”
It’s doubtful that Canelo will become the No.1 pound-for-pound fighter so soon. If Canelo beats Golovkin and looks good, I think it’ll move him up the pound for pound ratings, but he’ll still need to show that he can beat guys like Danny Jacobs and Jermall Charlo. If Golden Boy isn’t willing to risk putting Canelo in with those fighters, then he’s not ever going to become the pound for pound king. The only way to become the best is by fighting the best. Canelo needs to start being more assertive with the way Golden Boy is maneuvering his career, because he’s not being put in with the right fights for him to gain much traction with the boxing public.
“We have a lot. We know how to counter punch really well, we have better defense, and are faster,” said Reynoso in listing what Canelo has going for him that makes him better than Triple G. “Canelo is younger. So we have a lot of advantages over Golovkin No, I don’t think so,” Reynoso said in talking about Canelo’s tendency to win controversial decisions due to his counter punching. “Canelo tends to win the majority of the rounds, and the later it goes, we have the advantage,” said Reynoso.
I disagree with Reynoso that Canelo is the better defensive fighter than Golovkin. We just saw Golovkin fight an excellent defensive fight against Danny Jacobs earlier this year. When Golovkin doesn’t want to be hit, he’s very good at picking off punches with his gloves. If you look at the rounds in slow motion where Jacobs was winning on the judges’ scores, Golovkin was blocking almost everything Jacobs threw at him. The judges obviously couldn’t track the speedy punches from Jacobs to see how they were being blocked, but they clearly were.
In watching the fight in slow motion, Golovkin was blocking pretty much everything that Jacobs was throwing at him. Canelo is more conscious of not letting himself get hit than Golovkin. Canelo is perceived as the better defensive fighter than Golovkin because he puts more energy into not getting hit. Golovkin’s main objective for his fights is to entertain the boxing fans by going out and knocking out his opponents. In order to get knockouts, you have to risk getting hit. Knockout artists tend to get hit a lot while they’re trying to score knockouts. Canelo is more of a safety first Floyd Mayweather Jr. compared to Triple G. The two fighters are completely different. It’s like night and day. Canelo isn’t put together mentally like Golovkin. Canelo hates pain, and he doesn’t take risks in order to avoid it.
“Like the saying goes, the one who knows,” said Reynoso when told that Mayweather has already predicted that Canelo will be Golovkin. “Mayweather fought Canelo. He knows his ability and it’s something to take into account, because he’s great. It’s going to be a great fight, I tell you.” said Reynoso.
There are some who think that Mayweather is only picking Canelo to beat Golovkin for selfish reasons. They see it as Mayweather wanting to be the only one that has beaten Canelo.
Mayweather’s status as the only fighter to have beaten Canelo enhances his career, making him look better to the boxing fans. If Golovkin joins the club by beating Canelo, and possibly doing a far better job in doing so by knocking him out, then Mayweather’s earlier achievement will be tarnished. The gleam will be off of that win. Let’s face it; Mayweather fought a safety first fight in jabbing Canelo for 12 rounds to win a boring decision. Mayweather didn’t take risks. He jabbed and three pot shots until the 9th. Canelo landed a hard right hand to the head of Mayweather in the 9th. Mayweather responded by getting on his bike and moving for the remainder of the fight. If you thought the first 9 rounds of the Mayweather-Canelo fight were boring, then the final three rounds were sleep inducing due to how boring they were. Mayweather ran around the ring in rounds 10, 11 and 12, and played keep away from Canelo.
I wasn’t impressed at all with the way Canelo fought against Mayweather. That was not quality fighting from the redheaded Mexican star. For Mayweather to be picking Canelo over Golovkin, it reeks of desperation on Mayweather’s part to protect his legacy by him being the only guy to beat him.
“It has the makings of a knockout,” said Reynoso. “They are two aggressive fighters, who are strong and I think that probably will end in a knockout.”
if there’s going to be a knockout, it’s going to be Golovkin that does the knocking out. Canelo doesn’t hit hard enough at the middleweight level to knockout Golovkin. If Canelo tries to knock GGG out, he’s going to need to throw a lot of shots and empty his gas tank. Canelo cannot do that against Golovkin and survive. If Canelo gets tired against Golovkin, he’ll be helpless to protect himself from his big power shots.
