Canelo vs. Golovkin – 3 Weeks Away!

By Boxing News - 08/26/2017 - Comments

Image: Canelo vs. Golovkin - 3 Weeks Away!

By Dan Ambrose: The highly anticipated HBO pay-per-view fight between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 Kos) and IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) is just 3 weeks away for their HUGE showdown on September 16 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

After tonight’s Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor event is done with, the boxing world can focus on the Canelo-Golovkin fight. Some fans would say this is the much better fight compared to the Mayweather-McGregor fight. Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya would certainly make that argument. But even if the Canelo-GGG fails to bring in even half the amount of pay-per-view buys than Mayweather vs. Conor, it’s still likely going to be the much more exciting fight.

The outcome means a lot more to boxing. Canelo and Golovkin are battling it out to show who the best fighter is in the middleweight division. Canelo is just starting out, and he’s got to prove that he belongs at 160. During Canelo’s first stint in the weight class, he chose to fight at catch-weights against Miguel Cotto and Amir Khan.

Canelo needs to prove that he can fight at the full weight for the 160 lb. division against a REAL middleweight, not a pumped up 154lb fighter like Cotto or a former 140 lb. fighter in Khan. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered by Canelo against Golovkin. We’re going to find out in a heartbeat whether the red-haired Mexican star belongs at 160.

If Golovkin destroys Canelo like many boxing fans expect him to, it will enable him to move back down to 154 to save him further embarrassment at the hands of the other big punching middleweights like Sergey Derevyanchenko, Danny Jacobs and Jermall Charlo. Believe me; those guys are licking their chops waiting to get a shot at the smallish 5’8” Canelo. They see a small fighter who doesn’t have the size to be fighting at middleweight, and they’re going to take advantage of that if Canelo chooses to stay at 160 long enough to fight them.

Canelo vs. Golovkin comes to these areas:

Chin – The punch resistance favors Golovkin by a wide margin. Canelo has been hurt before in fights against Mayweather, Jose Miguel Cotto, James Kirkland and Austin Trout. The 5’5 ½”Jose Miguel Cotto had Canelo early in the fight, but he was unable to take him out.

Speed – favors Canelo.

Power – Golovkin. Canelo will never be a huge puncher at 160. He’s not built for the division.

Stamina – Golovkin. Canelo needs lots of rest breaks for him to go the distance. The only time Canelo doesn’t need a lot of rest breaks is when he’s fighting a punching bag type of opponent that doesn’t throw punches. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was just like a punching bag in his recent fight against Canelo last May. Even in that fight though, Canelo took rest breaks against the ropes, so it doesn’t seem to matter whether the pace is fast or slow.Canelo still needs rest breaks and lots of them.

Featherweight world champion Leo Santa Cruz thinks Canelo will be too fast, too elusive and too skilled with his counter punching for Golovkin to be able to beat him. Santa Cruz says that if the fight goes the full 12 round distance, Canelo will be the one that wins. He thinks Golovkin won’t be able to land his big power punches because of Canelo’s speed, and his hit and move style that he’ll likely be using against him.

“I have to go with Canelo. He’s more faster,” said Santa Cruz in speaking to Fighthype in giving his prediction on the Canelo-Golovkin fight. ”Triple G is a great fighter with a great punch, but he’s more stiff, and he’s more slower,” said Santa Cruz.

Canelo is faster than Golovkin, there’s no doubt about that. Canelo has the quicker hands by far, and he moves his upper body a lot better to avoid shots. However, Canelo has never shown the ability to handle a fighter that throws a good jab. Canelo lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013, and he did little more than throw jabs and single right hands the entire fight. Canelo couldn’t do anything to stop Mayweather’s jabs.

Canelo had the same problems in his fights against Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara. They both jabbed him at will from the outside. However, the judges gave Canelo wins in those fights, and he was very, very lucky with the scoring. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez believes that Canelo should have lost to Trout and Lara, and a lot of the boxing fans believe the same thing. They saw Canelo lose, but win by the scoring of the judges that worked those fights.

After seeing Canelo win those fights, Sanchez doesn’t trust the judges will give Golovkin a decision win over Canelo. Sanchez wants Golovkin to go after Canelo from the 1st round to look to knock him out and make sure the 3 judges don’t get a chance to score their fight on September 16. It would be a real travesty if Canelo won a controversial decision over Golovkin. It’s happened before with Canelo winning questionable decisions. When Lara asked for a rematch against Canelo, he was told by Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya o get in the back of the line. That was troubling, because Lara deserved a rematch given how controversial the decision was.

”I think he’s younger and moves more,” said Santa Cruz about Canelo in comparison to Triple G. ”His legs, he takes away punches. He counter punches really good. So I think he’s going to throw punches, move and he’s not going to let Triple G catch him with a great punch. If it goes to decision, I think Canelo is going to win,” added Santa Cruz.

I’m not sure if Santa Cruz has seen many of Canelo’s fights. If he had, he’d know that Canelo does NOT move a lot in his fights. Canelo is more of a stationary fighter, who likes to mainly work near the ropes. Canelo will either be attacking his opponents with them backed to the ropes or he’s got his back against the ropes. You don’t see Canelo staying in the center of the ring for very long for some reason. My guess is Canelo has such a bad engine that he can’t stay in the center of the ring for long without him needing to rest against the ropes. There’s not a lot of movement from Canelo in his fights. He’s either going forward or backwards. The truth is, Canelo is not a mover.

Santa Cruz must have Canelo mixed up with another fighter at 160, because he’s actually move immobile due to his short legs. Canelo is built like a short truck. Fighters with physiques like Canelo can’t move even if they wanted to. Canelo could probably for a little while, but he’ll get tired if he tries to move continuously for 12 rounds. Besides that, Golovkin cuts off the ring so quickly and efficiently. He’s going to be right on top of Canelo the entire time.

I would hope that Canelo’s trainers are foolish enough to think that he’s going to be able to get away from Triple G. Canelo has good boxing skills, but he can’t stop a jab and his stamina is limited. Even if Golovkin chooses to stay in the pocket and leave himself vulnerable to Canelo’s counter punches, I think he’ll still chop him down within 6 rounds. It might be better for Golovkin to dare Canelo to take him out with his counter punching. By doing that, Golovkin could wear him down quicker and force an early stoppage.

Golovkin has the ability to use a Plan-B if he’s not fast enough to cope with Canelo’s hand speed. Golovkin can stand on the outside and jab Canelo all night the way he did against David Lemieux and Danny Jacobs. Canelo will be helpless if that’s what Golovkin does. The only problem with Golovkin choosing to box Canelo is it will leave him vulnerable to being robbed like Lara and Trout arguably were in their fights against him.

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