By Dan Ambrose: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez could be heading towards his second career defeat on September 16 against middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin, according to trainer Abel Sanchez. There is a lot of strategic planning that has gone into this fight by Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions.
They waited 2 years until Golovkin was 35 to make the fight, and they obviously feel that he’s deteriorated enough for the 27-year-old Canelo to defeat him at this point in his career. If incredibly powerful and talented GGG can obliterate Canelo, it’s going to be monstrous blow to his career as well as to Golden Boy. All that planning that they did in waiting Golovkin out until he was old before making the fight would have gone up in smoke.
Canelo vs. Golovkin will be televised on HBO pay-per-view on September 16 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Both fighters will likely see their biggest career paydays depending on how many PPV buys the fight pulls in. The fight will likely bring in well over 1 million buys on HBO PPV.
“It’s a fight of contrasting styles, even though they have the same styles [as before when they sparred,” said Abel Sanchez to Fighthype in talking about GGG and Canelo. “They both can counter punch. Supposedly, they both can bang. I don’t think so. I think Golovkin is the bigger puncher. I think Canelo is more of a slapper,” said Sanchez.
The power clearly is on the side of Golovkin. He’s got unreal punching power, and that’s with both hands. He’s not just a right-hand puncher like Teddy Atlas talks about. Golovkin has a left hook that is devasating when he lands it flush. Golovkin broke Kell Brook’s eye socket with a left hook in the 1st round of their fight last September. That shot had Brook badly hurt.
If Golovkin connects with a left hook to the head or body of Canelo, the fight could be over right then and there. Canelo seems to be able to take head shots better than most people, but he’s not faced any punchers in his boxing career other than James Kirkland and Miguel Cotto. Canelo had too much weight on Cotto for his punches to affect him. In the case of Kirkland, he was knocked out too quickly for him to test Canelo’s career.
”I think it’s a fight between two guys that have earned the right to be there,” said Sanchez in talking about Canelo and Triple G. ”I’m not doing anything different. I think they have to adapt to us. I think Canelo is just another fighter that is in the ring with him. If Golovkin’s the best he can best, I think he beats him easily. I hope nothing happens on that night that makes it different, but nothing’s happened in 37 or 38 fights. So I think I think we’re going to have a good night,” said Sanchez.
Sanchez could be right about this being an easy fight for Golovkin. If he’s at his best, Canelo is going to be in deep trouble, because he’s so much smaller and weaker. Canelo hasn’t had the right experience to get ready for the Golovkin fight. Golden Boy has been so busy putting Canelo in mismatches that it’s kept him from testing his limits as a fighter. It’s like playing tennis with players that have no talent.
You’re not going to improve if all you’re doing is playing people that don’t have the talent to test you. Golden Boy has matched Canelo against these weak opponents in the last 2 years: Amir Khan, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Liam Smith, Miguel Cotto and James Kirkland. Those are not fighters that Canelo should have been fighting. Those are guys that Canelo should have fought much earlier in his career when he was just starting out.
Canelo should have been fighting the best like the Charlo brothers, Danny Jacobs and Demetrius Andrade. Now we’re going to see what happens when a fighter that doesn’t have the proper experience gets thrown into the ring with Golovkin. I think it’s going to end badly for Canelo with him getting knocked unconscious well before the 6th round. Golovkin is going wade right through Canelo’s slapping punches and take him out with a big body shot. Canelo is poor at taking body shots. I think Sanchez realizes this and he’ll make sure that GGG goes after his body on September 16.
