By Sean Jones: Promoter Eddie Hearn questions whether IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s punching power is gone, and he believes that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will do better against him in the rematch next year in May. Hearn notes that Golovkin hasn’t hurt his last 3 opponents in Canelo, Danny Jacobs and Kell Brook. Hearn wonders whether Golovkin has lost his punching power at his age.
Hearn says he didn’t see the entire Canelo vs. Golovkin fight, but he could understand how the judges scored the fight a 12-round draw. What Hearn doesn’t understand is the 118-110 score turned in by judge Adelaide Byrd. Hearn doesn’t see that as a sign of corruption on Byrd’s part with that score. He thinks that would be too obvious for someone to score a fight so far in favor of Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs). Never the less, Hearn says Byrd’s judging career is likely over after this. He sees it as being very difficult for her to come back from this.
“Most people thought Golovkin won,” said Hearn to Fighthub in remarking about the Canelo-Golovkin. “When you start talking about winning by 2 or 3 rounds, you can imagine a draw. What you can’t imagine is a 118-110 score. If they had given it to Canelo by a round, people would have gone, ‘Oh rubbish.’ If you’re corrupt, you don’t score a fight 118-110. It’s too obvious. You’d have to say that Adelaid Byrd’s career is over. It’s very hard to come back,” said Hearn.
The scores from the boxing media for press row last Saturday night was 116-112, Golovkin. That’s Golovkin winning 8 rounds to 4. That’s more than the 2 to 3 rounds that Hearn is talking about. That’s why the boxing public is so upset. They’re not just upset about one judge scoring it in Canelo’s favor by 10 rounds to 2 score. The fans are upset because they felt that Golovkin won the fight by a decisive margin. The fans aren’t on board with the Canelo-Golovkin fight being scored a draw, and they wouldn’t have been happy if it were scored in Canelo’s favor. In fact, there more of a backlash if the judges have given Canelo the victory than the just a draw.
“In that fight, there were rounds where Golovkin was always the aggressor,” said Hearn. “Sometimes Canelo wasn’t doing a lot, but scoring. Maybe you like the cuteness. Maybe you like the aggressor and the work of Golovkin,” said Hearn.
What the fans saw was Golovkin being the aggressor, and hitting a very tired looking Canelo with jabs in rounds 3 through 12. The fans saw that Canelo didn’t have the reach to get to Golovkin often enough for him to win most of the rounds from the 4th round on. Canelo against the ropes most of the time, and his body language showed that he was very tired.
”What it does do is it keeps the focus on all boxing in from now on,” said Hearn. . ”The judges are under real pressure from now. I had Danny Jacobs beating Golovkin. It was very close. These things can go either way. Maybe he got lucky on that one. Justice wasn’t done. What it has done is make a hell of a rematch,” said Hearn.
It’s easy for Hearn to rationalize away the scoring by the judges in the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight, because he doesn’t promote either guy. It’s not a big deal to Hearn, but it is a big deal to the U.S boxing fans, who feel that Golovkin was robbed. It means something to them. Hearn scoring the Golovkin-Jacobs fight in Jacobs favor is meaningless. That’s what’s being talked about now. Jacobs was knocked down, and he lost at least 6 rounds in the fight. The knockdown meant he lost the fight.
The rematch between Canelo and Golovkin works in Canelo’s favor. It’s on a Mexican holiday in May, and Golovkin will be 8 months older by then. He’ll be 36 and pushing 37. It’s smart for Golden Boy Promotions to push the rematch down the road almost a year. It’s unclear whether it was Golden Boy’s idea or Canelo’s to tell the boxing fan that Caneo will be taking the remainder of 2017 off. That works for Canelo. It’s a kind of a sly way to age Golovkin a little bit more.
When you have a fighter as old as Golovkin, pushing the fight into the future 8 months is another way of aging him. That’s almost a year from now. Golden Boy already made Golovkin wait over 2 years for the fight. They could have made the fight when he was 33, and fighting at a higher level. They waited until he was 35, and he failed to get the win because of questionable judging. Golovkin will now have to wait another 8 months. It works well for Golden Boy and Canelo, but it’s unwelcome news for Golovkin. There’s not much he can do about it though.
“What I said to Tom Loeffler last night is, ‘Hey mate, I know you would like to get the win, but it’s not the end of the world, is it?’ Bigger pay-per-view buys, bigger interest. It was a good fight. There will be a time where Golovkin starts to deteriorate. I don’t think that’s happened yet.” said Hearn.
The Canelo vs. Golovkin rematch would do better if it took place in December rather than having to wait almost 1 year for the fight to take place in May of 2018. It works well for Canelo to have it take place 8 months from now on Cinco de Mayo on May 5. If Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffer make an issue about the date for the rematch being pushed out so far into the future, they might end up with having to wait even longer. Canelo could push the fight into September of next year. That’s when the Mexican Independence Day holiday takes place. Canelo only fights on the Mexican holidays now. Golovkin trying to get him to veer off one of those dates could prove impossible.
“If I was Canelo, I’d be more confident going into the second fight, because you’d expect that to happen,” said Hearn. “The rematch will take place in May, from the looks of things. That’s another 8 to 9 months. For a fight that big, you can’t do it in December. Maybe you could do it in February or March, but May is Cinco de Mayo, isn’t it? So I’m sure both guys will settle for a few months of and then get back into camp,” said Hearn.
The Canelo and Golovkin rematch would still be huge if it took place in December. I don’t agree with Hearn. The fight is going to do considerable numbers no matter when it takes place. It obviously wouldn’t be a promising idea to stage the rematch around Christmas or New York’s Eve. That would be a poor decision. But if the Golovkin-Canelo rematch took place at the start of December, I think it would do very well.
”I always thought Golovkin would win. Now I’m starting to favor Canelo a bit,” said Hearn. ”But after seeing the first fight, I probably give Canelo more chance in the rematch then. I think he’ll have more success in the rematch than he did in the first fight, because I think he’ll be more experienced,” said Hearn.
It’s hard to say whether Canelo will do better or not in the rematch with Golovkin. It’ll depend on how heavy Canelo comes into the rematch. If Canelo comes into the second fight looking as heavy as he did for their fight last Saturday, then I can’t see him doing well. Canelo will get tired once again, and he’ll get outworked. If Golovkin changes his fighting style to attack more, then he’ll beat Canelo by a knockout. The way that Golovkin fought in the last part of the 12th, he gave Canelo a lot of problems when he attacked him. If Golovkin fights like that, I wouldn’t favor Canelo. The only question is can Golovkin attack Canelo in an aggressive enough way and throw enough punches in a row to get the knockout?
“People have been doing that lately,” said Hearn in taking Golovkin’s best power shots without getting hurt. “Don’t forget, Kell Brook got stopped with a broken eye socket, but he was never hurt in the fight other than the first 10 seconds. He was never hurt in the fight, and he took all his biggest shots, and he’s a welterweight. Danny Jacobs was knocked down, but he took all his shots. So is the power gone?” said Hearn in questioning whether Golovkin still hits hard.
I don’t think Golovkin’s power has abandoned him. Brook survived for 4 rounds against Golovkin by using movement. When Brook could no longer move, he was stopped in round 5. Hearn doesn’t count that as Golovkin hurting Brook, but I think he did hurt him. Brooked stopped fighting back after he was hit with a body shot in the 5th. I think that suggests that Golovkin hasn’t lost his power. Canelo was moving all the time, so it wasn’t possible for Golovkin to connect with his big shots against him. Golovkin wasn’t fighting Canelo the right way by NOT attacking him when he did have him against the ropes. Golovkin was boxing him. It was a definite mistake on GGG’s part not to be looking for the KO each time he backed Canelo to the ropes. Golovkin was willing to let the fight go to the scorecards, and he found out that you can’t do that against a money fighter like Canelo. You must knock him out if you want to win. Golovkin forgot the lesson his trainer Abel Sanchez had tried to teach him by making sure that he knocked Canelo out so the judges wouldn’t take his victory away from him.
