By Sean Jones: Tom Loeffler says Gennady “GGG” Golovkin is ready to get back into the ring in December and fight a rematch with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez because he feels he won their fight on September 16 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Canelo, however, is saying he wants to wait until next year before he fights again. There’s some concern that the 27-year-old Golden Boy Promotions star Canelo will choose to avoid a rematch with Golovkin after getting very lucky with the judges giving him a gift 12 round draw in Vegas. Loeffler says that Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) was under a lot of pressure from his Mexican boxing fans to fight Golovkin the last time.
Those fans will likely put similar pressure on Canelo to fight Golovkin in a rematch due to the way that their fight ended with the redheaded star seemingly being given a draw he didn’t deserve against Triple G. Canelo’s own boxing fans booed him after the fight, Loeffler says. That tells you the fans felt Canelo’s performance was not up to par, and that he did not deserve the 12-round draw that he was given.
”The culture is that Mexicans don’t run. And never before have we heard Canelo booed the way he was by his own Mexican fans in Vegas after the draw was announced,” said Loeffler to the dailymail. ”Triple G knows he really won the first fight and he would go again as early as December if they wanted.”
One thing that Canelo won’t be able to change no matter what he does is his lack of height and reach. At 5’8 1/2”, Canelo is short for the middleweight division. That’s a flaw that Canelo will need to work around if he wants to have success against Golovkin and the other taller middleweights in the division like Danny Jacobs and Jermall Charlo. Both of those fighters are over 6-feet.
Historically, short fighters are forced to come forward and pressure their taller opponents for them to win. Canelo did the opposite against Golovkin. Canelo stayed on the ropes for 12 rounds and was jabbed continually by the taller, stronger Golovkin. The only that saved Canelo from losing the fight was the crazy scoring by 2 of the judges, Adelaide Byrd and Don Trella, both of which gave the Golden Boy star rounds in which he appeared to lose.
Canelo should have lost to Golovkin in the view of the boxing public, but the strange scoring from 2 of the judges saved him. For Canelo to win without controversy at middleweight, he’s going to need to change the way he fights. He’s no longer fighting welterweights and junior middleweights. Canelo’s lack of height wasn’t as much of a handicap for him when he was fighting in those divisions compared to now.
Canelo will need to learn how to fight like a short fighter by becoming a pressure fighter in the Arturo Gatti mode if he wants to do well at middleweight. Canelo could obviously learn how to attack his opponents if not for his poor stamina and conditioning. Canelo doesn’t appear to have the engine for him to become a pressure fighter. He never has had good conditioning, and it’s possible that he never will.
The problem is Canelo and Golden Boy DO NOT want to fight in December, and you have to hope that they want to fight GGG in May of next year. Canelo’s performance against Triple G showed that he needs to fine tune his game to improve his conditioning, weight and the way that he fights for him to have a chance of beating the Kazakhstan fighter in 2018. There are too many areas for Canelo to fix before May of 2018. The glaring flaws in Canelo’s game can only be improved over a number of fights with him taking tune-ups to learn what the correct weight for him should be, and to fix his poor conditioning.
Even with all that, Canelo would have to change the way he fights for him to defeat Golovkin. Canelo will never beat Golovkin by fighting with his back against the ropes for 12 rounds. Canelo was a sitting duck all night when he was fighting with his back against the ropes. Unable to reach the taller, longer-armed Golovkin, Canelo was forced to eat power jabs round after round. The body language of Canelo was that of a tired fighter that was TOO SMALL to beat Golovkin.
”I’ve had a first conversation with [Golden Boy Promotions president] and while I don’t know yet what they want in the way of terms, it is clear they are keen to go ahead,” said Loeffler. ”Canelo says he won the fight. If he truly believes that then he should have no qualms about the rematch.”
I don’t believe for a second that Canelo truly believes he ever won the fight against GGG. You could tell by the look on Canelo’s face after the fight that he knew he lost to Triple G. If there was any doubts in Canelo’s mind who the real victor was after the fight, it was confirmed when his boxing fans booed him loudly when he was interviewed by HBO inside the ring. The fans let Canelo know they thought he lost the fight, and was given a gift decision over GGG. Canelo obviously didn’t help himself any by failing to be gracious with him criticizing Golovkin’s power.
Eric Gomez of Golden Boy says they want the Canelo-Golovkin rematch, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen soon. They could stretch it out and let Golovkin age more. As it is, Canelo saying he’s not going to fight until next year in May means that Golovkin won’t get a rematch with him for 8 months. That’s basically 1 year. Golovkin will be 36 by then. Canelo could easily make the rematch against Golovkin in December without making him and the boxing public wait. But by stretching the fight out until May 5 of 2018, it’s another way of aging Golovkin.
It’s still unclear whether Canelo will fight Golovkin even then. If Canelo knows that he lost the fight to Golovkin, he could make him wait for more than just 8 months before he gets a second fight against him. It could be as long as 1 year. I don’t see Golovkin aging enough for Canelo to beat him a year from now, especially with the conditioning and stamina problems that the redheaded Golden Boy star is plagued with. Canelo’s stamina issues have been there from day one since the start of his pro career 12 years ago. Canelo’s stamina problems are not going to be fixed in my view.
If Canelo hasn’t been able to improve his ability to fight hard without gassing up to this point in his career, I don’ see him ever being able to improve this area of his game. If anything, I see Canelo’s stamina getting worse as he ages. Eventually, Canelo’s poor stamina will make him a non-factor in the middleweight division. When you look at Canelo’s inadequate size for the 160 lb. division, his future outlook isn’t a bright one. You don’t have too many short middleweights with stamina problems doing well in this weight class.
David Lemieux, 5’9 ½”, is a bigger, stronger version of Canelo at middleweight, but even with him, he’s not been able to find great success because of his flaws. Canelo is even shorter than Lemieux, and his stamina is arguably worse. Lemieux at least can fight hard for a full 3 minutes of each round for 6 rounds before he gasses out. By that time, most of Lemieux’s opponents are knocked out due to his huge punching power.
After the way that the judges scored the Canelo fight, Golovkin is said not to want to fight Canelo in Las Vegas. Loeffler is interested in placing the Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 rematch in Dallas, Texas. He believes that 90,000 boxing fans could attend the Canelo-GGG rematch, and it would be a profitable fight. Eric Gomez says he prefers Las Vegas. This is something that’s going to need to be worked out between Team Golovkin and Golden Boy.
If Golovkin insists on fighting outside of Las Vegas, it could cause Canelo to forget about the rematch for now. If Canelo needs an excuse for why he doesn’t have to fight Golovkin a second time, then he can tell the boxing public that the fight can’t be made because of Triple G’s insistence on not fighting in Las Vegas. Canelo is used to getting his way in the negotiations now. If Golovkin doesn’t give him his way and fight in Vegas a second time, then it could be a deal-breaker that prevents him from getting the rematch. Canelo can fight anybody and make good money.
Obviously, Canelo can’t make the kind of money he can make fighting Golovkin by facing someone else, but there’s less risk involved for him if he goes back to fighting soft jobs like he’s done for most of his career. If Canelo is going to stay at middleweight, he’s going to have tremendous problems trying to beat the taller middleweights like Jacobs and Jermall Charlo. Canelo can’t avoid those guys for long if he wants to be seen as the best middleweight in the division. There’s a much smaller group of talented fighters at 160 compared to when Canelo was fighting at 154. Canelo didn’t fight the top guys at 154 in Jermell Charlo, Demetrius Andrade, Jarrett Hurd, Julian Williams and Erickson Lubin. When Canelo was fighting at 154, he was facing guys like Liam Smith, Amir Khan, James Kirkland, Alfredo Angulo, Matthew Hatton, Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara.
While Canelo did face Lara and Trout, his wins over them were highly controversial. Both of those fighters appeared to get the better of Canelo, but were given questionable losses. If Canelo is going to stay at middleweight, he’s going to need to fight Charlo, Jacobs and Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Canelo is going to need to learn how to fight like a smaller fighter by becoming a pressure fighter if he wants to win without controversy each time. Canelo can’t have a successful career if all his wins against the best fighters are controversial decisions in which he appeared to lose the fight. If Canelo can’t improve, he’s going to get beaten repeatedly at middleweight starting with his rematch with Golovkin, if there is a rematch.
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya says, “We must do the tie-breaker.” De La Hoya seems to want the Canelo vs. GGG rematch to take place, but he’s not the one that has to make the final decision. It’s Canelo that has to want to get back inside the ring with Golovkin. If Canelo doesn’t believe he’s up to the task, he can dig in his heels, and come up with an excuse for why he won’t fight GGG again. Canelo has shown no interest in clearing up the controversy surrounding his past questionable wins over Lara and Trout. Canelo was fine with winning in that kind of fashion. It’s possible that Canelo will ignore Golden Boy and his own boxing fans by choosing not to fight Golovkin. De La Hoya can’t drag Canelo into the ring to force him to do the right thing by fighting Golovkin again. If Canelo doesn’t want a second fight against Golovkin, then there’s nothing that can be done about it.
I suspect that Canelo will look to wait as long as he can before making the rematch with Golovkin in order to age the Kazakhstan fighter a little more. Ultimately, that’s the move I see Canelo making. He’ll wait at least 1 year before making the rematch with Golovkin in September 2018. By waiting that long, Canelo will have a chance to work on his conditioning and getting his weight right for the rematch. At the same time, it lets Golovkin age more so he’s less of a threat to beating him again.