By Jim Dower: Middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) was robbed of a clear win in fighting to a controversial 12 round draw against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) at the T-mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The judges scored the fight 118-110 for Canelo, 115-113 for Golovkin and 114-114. Boxing News 24 scored the fight for Golovkin 9 rounds to 3.
The draw was almost predictable. With the amount of money on the line for a rematch, and with Canelo and Golovkin being so popular, this kind of scoring was something you would almost expect. Never the less, to have one judge score the fight 118-110 for Canelo. That score is something that that makes you shake your head and wonder where the judges are found to score fights. Even the 115-113 score for Golovkin and the 114-114 scores were truly bad. Golovkin deserved a win, and this scoring was a black eye for boxing.
Canelo was exhausted and moving constantly. It was difficult to give Canelo rounds, even though he was landing some good punches every now and then. Golovkin was out-punching Canelo by a wide margin, and nailing him with jabs repeatedly. The body language from Canelo was that of a tired and in distress fighter, as he moved along the ropes, as if his life depended on it. Canelo looked afraid to go away from the ropes.
The score of 118-110 for Canelo was disturbing, as the judge seemed to be watching a completely different fight. There was no way that Canelo had won the fight by that score. He was getting worked out. Canelo did come back to fight well enough to win the 11th and possibly the 12th, but he had given away at least 8 to 9 of the other rounds.
By the end of the fight, Golovkin had the crowd eating out of his hand. They were cheering him while he was being interviewed after the fight, because he was being gracious and respectful. In contrast, Canelo was booed, being that he failed to give Golovkin credit, and he said he didn’t have good punching power. Canelo came across like a poor sport in a major way. Canelo didn’t fight like a star. He moved too much, and looked tired much of the time.
Canelo appeared to be exhausted and moving through most of the fight. He was against the ropes, using the ropes as a cane as he moved around. He was able to land some shots, but it was Golovkin that was outworking him and doing the better job.
“I wanted drama show,” said Golovkin after the fight. “Of course, I want a rematch. I want a fight. I want true fight. I want a championship fight. He moves too much. I want close fight. I want Mexican fight.”
“Truthfully, no,” said Canelo when asked if Golovkin hits hard. “Not as they speak about. Not as they felt. I came out to see what he had in the early rounds. I won 7, 8 rounds easily. If the people want it, then why not. I was there to fight. I did my fighting. We’ll fight in a second fight and I’ll win again anyway,” said Canelo sounding like a poor sport.
It was sad how Canelo, with his swollen face afterwards, couldn’t even give Golovkin credit for hitting hard. Canelo came across like a spoiled kid that didn’t have things go his way for once in his life. It’s always hard for fighters to have a microphone stuck in their face immediately after a grueling fight to have tough questions asked of them. Canelo didn’t have time to collect himself and say what was right for the occasion. Instead, the mask came off, and the boxing fans got to see Canelo’s true thoughts, and it didn’t play out well with his boxing fans. That was Canelo’s crowd, and they booed him for being a poor sport.
Here’s what former 2 division world champion Paulie Malignaggi said about tonight’s Canelo vs. Golovkin decision:
“Nah that was politics man. Unfortunately when a fighter generates the money Canelo does lots of people get rich so cash cow gets protected.”
You have to agree with Malignaggi. Canelo is the cash cow of boxing right now, and he doesn’t get beaten by decision. We saw that tonight in his fight against Golovkin, as well as in his 2 controversial wins over Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara. Canelo appeared to lose both of those fights. The thing is, Canelo comes out of this fight looking bad, because it appeared that he was given a draw that he didn’t deserve. If the rematch between Canelo and Golovkin ends in a similar way with Canelo dodging a defeat due to wacky scoring, it’s going to ruin his popularity. Canelo can’t have his career centered on controversial decisions against the good fighters he faces. We know that Canelo can beat the moderately good fighters like Amir Khan, James Kirkland, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Liam Smith, Alfredo Angulo and Miguel Cotto. But Canelo has got to be able to beat the talented ones too for him to be a true star in boxing. If Canelo wants to become a crossover star, then he needs to be able to beat guys like Golovkin, Danny Jacobs, Jermall Charlo and Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Canelo didn’t prove he could beat Golovkin tonight. He showed that he’s still getting questionable scoring for his fights.
The scoring of the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight will now have many boxing fans thinking the sport is corrupt, because the results seemed to be so cut and dried. It was a clear win for Golovkin. Canelo was outworked from start to finish. He was fighting for a full 3 minutes of each round. That was the problem. Canelo was landing a big shot here and then, but then getting hit with 6-8 hard shots from Golovkin. The body language that Canelo showed while fighting against the ropes, red-faced and looking exhausted. There was no way you could give Canelo rounds with him looking like that. He looked desperately tired, and at times he appeared ready to be knocked out.