By Allan Fox: Max Kellerman of HBO gave scored last night’s fight between middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) in favor of Golovkin by a close decision in their fight on HBO PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
(Photo Credit: Tom Hogan/Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions)
However, Kellerman spent most of the time praising Canelo, saying how good he is, and how he’s one of the best fighters in the middleweight division today.
It was interesting that Kellerman failed to touch on Canelo’s poor conditioning last night. Canelo was unable to fight hard during the rounds. You could see Golovkin pushing the fight to a very exhausted looking Canelo in every round. Even in the 11th and 12th rounds, which the judges scored in Canelo’s favor in a lockstep manner, Canelo was only able to fight hard in the first minute of the round. After that, Canelo got tired, and was outworked by Golovkin in the last 2 minutes of the round. The judges gave Canelo rounds 10, 11 and 12. Canelo fought well enough to deserve the 11th, but Golovkin finished strong in the 10th and 12th to get the better of him when he exhausted himself in the first minute of those rounds. Canelo’s stamina was horrible last night. Kellerman didn’t bring that up. It makes you wonder whether the guy understands boxing well enough to analyze a fight properly.
The judges scored the Canelo-Golovkin fight 118-110 for Canelo, 115-113 for Golovkin and 114-114 even. The 118-110 score meant that the judge, Adalaide Byrd, saw Canelo beating Golovkin by 10 rounds to 2 score. She’s taking a lot of criticism from boxing fans for that score today, as it was not a score that reflected the fight that took place last Saturday night. If she had given that same score for Golovkin, she likely wouldn’t have had too many boxing fans disagreeing with her, but for her to give it to Canelo, it seemed out of place for action that took place in the fight. Canelo was mostly resting and taking breaks along the ropes for most of the fight. Canelo was unable to fight hard for the full three minutes of each round. Canelo could only fight in brief spurts in landing a pot shot here and there.
”I thought Triple G shaded the fight,” said Kellerman to HBO. ”I thought he won by a little bit, but it was really close and it was close because Canelo is so special. I think Triple G has never been on this stage before. He looked nervous early. He looked like he’d never been there before. Canelo looked relaxed. Later in the fight when Triple G came on and put the rounds in the bank and started to break down Canelo a bit, but when Canelo was told he needed to step it up and he did like a true champion and fight his way back into the fight and ultimately got a draw,” said Kellerman.
In listening to Kellerman and the other HBO commentators Jim Lampley and Roy Jones Jr., you would have little idea that Golovkin was getting the better of Canelo last night. The fight that they were describing to the boxing fans was one that was knotted up or even in Canelo’s favor. It was very peculiar, because none of them were criticizing Canelo for him moving so much, looking tired and getting outworked by Golovkin. The only HBO guy that seemed to be telling what was happening inside the ring with Harold Lederman, HBO’s unofficial ringside scorer. Lederman scored the fight 8 rounds to 4 in favor of Golovkin.
Canelo is important to HBO Boxing, as he brings in huge ratings for his fights, and he’s pretty much the only fighter on the network that is a PPV attraction. It would probably be bad for HBO if Canelo had lost last night to Golovkin instead of being given a draw. If Golovkin had beaten Canelo last night instead of the fight ending in a controversial draw, it might have hurt Canelo’s drawing power for the future fights on HBO. At least with the Canelo-Golovkin fight being scored a draw, Canelo’s popularity likely won’t be dented too badly. But if he Canelo loses to Golovkin in the rematch, it could hurt his ability to attract boxing fans for his future.
“Triple G had a really close call with Danny Jacobs, who is the 2nd best middleweight in the world,” said Kellerman. ”Here he fights one of the best middleweights in the world in Canelo Alvarez in the world, and it’s a draw. Is this because at 35 he’s starting to slow down or is this what happens when you actually get in there with the best guy in your division, when you’re no longer the most avoided guy in boxing. But now we really see when you really have against the other best fighter in in boxing,” said Kellerman.
I disagree with Kellerman. Golovkin didn’t get a draw against Canelo because he’s “one of the best middleweights in the world,” as Kellerman says, but because of questionable scoring by the 3 judges that were assigned to the fight by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. When you have massive amounts of boxing fans, people in the media and former fighters saying that Golovkin should have been given the decision by 8 rounds to 4, then that suggests that the scoring by the judges was off by a wide margin. Golovkin didn’t get a draw against Canelo because he’s 35-years-old now, he got a draw because of the crazy way that the 3 judges scored the fight. It wasn’t age that caused Golovkin to get a draw last night. It was the scoring by the 3 judges that were assigned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. I thought Danny Jacobs did a better job fighting Golovkin than Canelo did. Jacobs fought hard for the full 3 minutes of each round, and he wasn’t running around the ring, hanging on the ropes, and looking exhausted like Canelo was last night.
Canelo showed serious flaws in terms of his conditioning and inability to fight hard for the full duration of each round. Golovkin took advantage of that, and he clearly outworked the redheaded star. Golovkin is not the only one that can do this to Canelo. If Golden Boy Promotions puts Canelo in with the other top middleweights like Daniel Jacobs, Sergiy Derevyancneko, Jermall Charlo and David Lemieux, we could see the same thing. Do the judges keep giving Canelo draws in the future each time he gets outworked and outlanded by his opponents or do they finally give him defeats, which he clearly deserved last night. Canelo has been very, very lucky in getting decisions in his important fights of his career. It can’t go on forever for Canelo getting controversial wins or draws. Canelo is going to get beaten if he doesn’t pick up his game and improve his stamina.
“I had Triple G up 1 or 2 rounds,” said Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to Fighthub. “I think Triple G deserved the decision because of his age and the pressure. It was constant pressure for Canelo, and he threw more punches. Canelo landed the more significant punches. 118-110, I don’t know. The casino won. I was surprised that Canelo took Golovkin’s punches, because Golovkin is the hardest puncher in boxing. I give a lot of credit to Canelo. I thought Triple G won, because I don’t see a way Canelo win. Canelo landing just 1 punch. I don’t think 118-110 is very good,” said Chavez Jr.
Even Chavez Jr. felt that Golovkin deserved the decision, although he was overly generous to Canelo in giving him the first 2 rounds of the fight. I didn’t see Canelo doing enough to win either of the first 2 rounds, as he was eating jabs and not letting his hands go enough for him to win those rounds. I had Golovkin winning those rounds.