By Chris Williams: Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya says his fighter Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) really wants to get out there and do damage to the knockout artist Gennady ‘GGG” Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) on Saturday night.
No doubt Canelo is tired of being called a ducker for the past 2 years from boxing fans for him choosing not to fight Gennady in 2015 and 2015, when he was trying hard to get a fight against him. Canelo, who has been rumored to be rehydrating to over 170 pounds for years, wasn’t big enough to fight at middleweight until now, according to De La Hoya.
Canelo put on a lot of weight for the GGG fight during the last training camp. and he’s expected to be the heavier man when the two of them fight on Saturday. For the final press conference on Wednesday Canelo looked to be the same size as Golovkin in terms of thickness.
There was virtually no difference between the two fighter’s other than Golovkin being taller. Canelo is expected to be the bigger fighter when the two of the start throwing blows on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Just how much Canelo will weight is unclear. It would be in the 180s or even the 190s. Canelo says he didn’t gain that much muscle. It’s hard to believe him after looking at how big he appeared during the fighters’ recent medial workout. Canelo looked like he was in the 180s at the very least.
The added weight should help Canelo against Golovkin. There should be more power in Canelo’s punches now that he’s put on close to 20 lbs. of weight since he started bulking up earlier this year before his fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Canelo has concentrated on adding weight for the last 2 training camps. If he’s still not big enough for De La Hoya to says he’s a middleweight, then I don’t know if he ever will. De La Hoya never gave the magical number for how much Canelo needs to weigh when he enters the ring for him to consider his red-headed fighter a middleweight. It would seem to be if Canelo has been fighting in the 170s, he’s been a middleweight since 2014. Golovkin weights in the low 170s for his fights at middleweight.
“I’m prepared. I know this is going to be a tough fight. I know that,” said Canelo. “I just want you to enjoy it like I’m going to enjoy it.”
Canelo and Golovkin had almost nothing to say at the final press conferences. It was letdown in a way. Those two fighters were following the huge Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor fight that took place 3 weeks ago. You’d think that Canelo and Golovkin would have brought some drama to their final press conference instead sleep walking their way through it. I think it was a missed opportunity by both of them to build interest in their fight.
“This is a fight that I’ve been waiting for a long time to win in a more convincing than other fights,” said Canelo to Fighthub in talking up the GGG fight. “For all the things that were said and were talked about,” said Canelo in saying why it’s important for him to beat Golovkin. ”I didn’t add a lot more muscle. Obviously, I still have to cut weight, and when you cut weight and add muscle, it’s going to be difficult. I just added weight to compete now that I’m at 160 and feel competitive at 160. There’s going to be times where I’m going to have to be the aggressor. There’s going to be times where I’m going to technical. There’s where the fights going to unfold,” said Canelo.
Canelo has got to be kidding if he really wants the boxing fans to believe that he didn’t add a lot of weight. Who is he trying to kid? Canelo added a TON of weight for the fight. At this point, I have doubts whether he’ll make the weight for the fight. If he does, then I see him blowing off the IBF’s weight check on the morning of the fight. Canelo can’t be over 170 for that weight in. If he comes in as big as a house, then he won’t make the fight and won’t be able to fight for the IBF title.
“Yes, absolutely,” said Canelo when asked if he’s going to be shooting for a knockout against Golovkin. “That’s what I prepare for. That’s what I train for. It’s unpredictable. The knockout if it comes or doesn’t, but that’s I’m working for,” said Canelo.
Of course, Canelo is going to be looking to knockout Golovkin, and vice versa. That’s what boxing is all about. No one wants to have to go the full 12 rounds and take a beating just to have 3 judges decide their fate. I think it’s more important for Golovkin to get a knockout than Canelo, because he’s not as popular as him and there’s a greater chance of him being robbed than for Canelo. With that being said, Canelo isn’t a knockout puncher. He knocks out the B and C-level fighters with no talent, but he’s never been able to knockout an A-level guy or come close to knocking out one of those fighters.
Freddie Roach says Gennady Golovkin is too big for Canelo
As far as trainer Freddie Roach is concerned, Golovkin has too much power and size for Canelo Alvarez. He thinks the fight comes down to whether Golovkin can use his size and power to go after Canelo at the start of the fight to try and knock him out quickly. Roach thinks Golovkin has a bad habit of starting out slowly in his fights, and toying with his opposition. Roach sees that as a bad idea for Golovkin to do that against Canelo because he hits too, and he could catch him with something early on in the fight.
“The first thought is he’s too big, and too big a puncher, Triple G,” said Roach to Fighthub. “I think he’s the better puncher of the 2. He controls the ring really, really well. He has great ring generalship. But if he starts slow like he always does, and he’s been able to do that in his past fight, and he might get caught, because one punch can change things. Look at Amir Khan. One punch can change a whole fight. He might have won 5 rounds, Amir Khan, but 1 punch changed everything. I think Triple G needs to start a little fast in this fight and not just toy with him and fool around, because this is a guy you don’t want to feel out, because he can punch and Triple G can punch also. If I was his trainer, I’d like to see him be a little more aggressive and go after him right away. People tell me Canelo is going to come in heavier than Triple G,” said Roach.
Roach seems to have the right advice for Triple G. He’s got to start fast against Canelo if he wants to knock him out. We saw what happened to Golovkin in his last fight when he started slowly against Danny Jacobs in their fight on March 18. Golovkin didn’t have the power needed to try and score a knockout late in the fight. Golovkin gassed out in the last half of the fight and was lucky to get a 12-round decision win.
“I think what he has to keep in mind is to be aware of his punching power, because you don’t want to test it out when that bell rings,” said De La Hoya to Fighthub about Canelo needing to be on guard about GGG’s power. “You have to be aware that he does punch hard. You have to be aware that these punches are going to hurt. The size matters. You want to be able to handle a big guy in there that’s a normal middleweight. By fight night, I believe Golovkin will be 175, 176, maybe. So, you want to be able to hand a big guy, and you want to put on size, but you have to be careful. You don’t want to lose you’re speed. You want to be fast on your feet. Not only does Canelo have to put on size, but he has to keep speed as well. He wants it bad. I’ve never seen him like this. I’ve never seen him with this type of attitude. He wants to really go out there and do some damage. I like that because it brings out the best in Gennady Golovkin and Canelo,” said De La Hoya.
De La Hoya conveniently mentions what he believes Golovkin’s weight will be at Saturday night, but he fails to give his estimate of how much Canelo will weigh when he gets inside the ring on Saturday. It makes you wonder what kind of weight he’ll be at. Will it be at 170 or well above Golovkin in the 180s or perhaps even the 190s.
Canelo will be very aware of Golovkin’s power in this fight. I don’t expect him to be taking too many chances in this fight unless he can catch Golovkin with an uppercut or counter punch. I don’t see this fight playing out like Canelo’s last bout against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Golovkin will come to fight. He’s not going to give up after 1 round and become a punching bag for Canelo to showcase his skills against. Canelo will need to earn his money on Saturday night.
Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya says he’ll make at least $50 million for the Golovkin fight with the high PPV sales that are expected on HBO. There’s no word how much GGG will be getting. It’s common knowledge that the 27-year-old Canelo will be getting the lion’s share of the revenue. In the preliminary stages of the negotiations, De La Hoya was saying that Golovkin would get a flat fee purse for the fight. That could potentially hurt Golovkin if he agreed to a flat fee of $10 to $15 million for a fight that pulls in over 3 million buys on HBO PPV. The good news for Golovkin is if he knocks Canelo out on Saturday, he can expect to get a better financial deal in the rematch if Golden Boy elects to make a second fight. It’s open to question whether Golden Boy will want to take that kind of risk with Canelo, as he’s their No.1 pay-per-view money earner in their stable. One knockout loss to Golovkin will obviously dent Canelo’s earning potential, perhaps in a really bad way, but a second knockout loss for the redheaded star could destroy him as a money earner. It would be a risk on Golden Boy’s part to make a second fight between Canelo and Golovkin immediately if Saturday’s fight ends badly for their golden goose. They might want to let Golovkin age some more before they make a second fight. They waited 3 years until Golovkin was 35 before letting him fight Canelo. They might take a similar tact if Canelo loses on Saturday.
