By Dan Ambrose: Former 2 division world champion Danny Garcia says he had middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) beating Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) by 7 rounds to 5 score in their mega-fight on September 16 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Garcia says the only reason Golovkin beat Canelo is because the Golden Boy Promotions star wasn’t accustomed to the weight that he put on for the fight. Garcia says Canelo got tired in the middle rounds. If not for that, Canelo would have won the fight, according to Garcia. Indeed, Garcia says Canelo will beat Golovkin “easy” in the rematch next year.
“I thought it was a close fight,” said Danny Garcia to ES News Reporting in discussing the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight. “I wasn’t mad at a draw. I had a close win for Triple G. I gave Canelo the first 3 rounds, and gave Canelo the last 3 rounds,” said Garcia. [Ambrose’s note: 3+3 = 6, not 7. Danny appears confused with his math].
Besides Garcia’s incorrect math in saying he gave GGG 7 rounds and then saying in the next breath Canelo won the first 3 and the last 3 rounds, it’s impossible to give Canelo all 3 of the first or the 3 of the last without giving him credit for rounds where he was dominated. If you ignore what Golovkin did in those rounds, you can come up with the same draw that Garcia is talking about, but then you’re arguably being biased because you’re not scoring the fight correctly by scoring rounds based on which fighter is doing the better work. I think Canelo won the first 2 rounds, but not the first 3.
I gave Canelo 3 rounds in the entire fight. I couldn’t give him 4 like most in the boxing media, because Canelo was done after round 3. Canelo barely won rounds 1, 2 and 10. That’s it. Canelo was outworked in the remainder of the rounds. In the 11th and 12th, Canelo fought hard for just the first 40 to 45 seconds. After that, he was tired and he did nothing.
Garcia says the reason why he’ll beat GGG with ease is because he’ll study what he did wrong in their fight and he’ll correct those problems. What Garcia fails to mention is the biggest problem that Canelo had against Golovkin wasn’t his stamina issues, although those were very important as well. The main problem that Canelo had was his lack of height and reach. Canelo was simply too short and his arms not long enough to reach Golovkin. If you study the fight closely, you’ll notice that Canelo was helpless when Golovkin was staying on the outside. Canelo didn’t have the reach to land his jabs or his power shots. As such, Golovkin could dominate with his longer arms. Danny Garcia’s prediction didn’t say anything about Canelo growing any taller and increasing his short arm length by the time he fights GGG again next May. Canelo is going to stay the same short 5’8” fighter that he was last time he fought GGG, and he’s going to have major trouble landing anything if Golovkin stays on the outside.
“I gave Triple G all the middle rounds. I had it 7-5,” said Garcia.I wasn’t mad at the draw, because Triple G was taking some punishment. In his last 2 fights, he’s taken a lot of punishment. Danny Jacobs landed a lot of big shots on him, and Canelo landed a lot of big punches. They got to teach him. They got to teach him to move his head a little bit, because he don’t move his head. Hey, that’s his style. He says he fights Mexican style, but even the great [Julio Cesar] Chavez moved his head. Come on, I don’t think that’s Mexican style. I had him winning, but he definitely took a lot of punishment in his last 3 fights. I’d like to see how he moves on from his last 3 fights. That’s what happens when you fight the good fighters. You might not look your best. They might expose your weakness a little bit,” said Garcia about Triple G.
Danny Garcia might not be mad at Canelo-Golovkin ending in a draw, but the boxing public sure is. The fans are hopping mad about the results of the fight. They didn’t see the Canelo vs. GGG fight as a draw. They saw Canelo looking tired and losing the fight. When you get tired and outworked by your opponent, you’re not supposed to be giving complimentary draws because of you fighting for the first time at a new weight after bulking up during training camp. Garcia makes excuse for Canelo, but the judges aren’t supposed to give fighters a handicap if they run out of gas in fighting at a new weight.
If Canelo couldn’t handle it at 160, which is obviously case, then he deserved a defeat, not a draw. The way that Garcia is talking, Canelo should be given a draw because he was fighting at middleweight for the first time. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. You don’t get gift draws because you got tired because of the weight you put on. You’re either able to fight well at the weight or you don’t. If you don’t fight well after bulking up, you’re not supposed to be given a draw you didn’t earn.
”I think Canelo beats him easy in the rematch. I think the only reason it was close is because he got tired, and I don’t think he was used to the weight. He couldn’t keep him off of him. It was steady pressure, but I think after he watches the fight and sees why it was close, I think he beats him easy the second time,” said Garcia.
There it is. Garcia explaining why Canelo should have lost to GGG by mentioning he got tired. Garcia seems to believe that Canelo will magically have great stamina when he fights Golovkin in the rematch. Canelo has always had poor stamina. Garcia is talking like this is the first fight where Canelo has exhibited signs of him gassing out. Canelo has always had this problem. Look at Canelo’s fights against Erislandy Lara, Matthew Hatton, Shane Mosley, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Miguel Cotto. Those were all fights in which Canelo needed rest breaks because he got tired. For Canelo to have a chance of beating Golovkin, he’s going to need to attack him all out for 3 minutes of each round. I wish I could see Canelo doing that, but I can’t. I don’t think he can.
If Canelo tries to fight harder than he did last time, he’s going to going to get worked over by Golovkin and likely knocked out. Garcia needs to face the reality. Canelo fought as hard as his body would allow him to. Unfortunately, we only saw Canelo put out a strong effort in the first 40 to 45 seconds of each round. After that, Canelo would get tired ad and spend the last 2 minutes and 15 seconds resting against the ropes looking exhausted. Canelo would shake his head occasionally, when Golovkin would land something to try and discourage him from throwing his power shots. Golovkin would ignore Canelo and continue to nail him with big punches from the outside.
“Great defense and he landed some bombs,” said Garcia about Canelo. “He would have knocked anybody else out with those punches,” said Garcia. ”Canelo went into the fight, the only thing that was on his side was the promotion, but he didn’t have the advantage or nothing,” said Danny Garcia.
I don’t agree that Canelo would knockout anybody with the shots he landed on Golovkin. I don’t see Canelo as having major power at middleweight. He couldn’t knockout Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. or GGG. Canelo is junior middleweight, and he’s not even the biggest puncher in that weight class. I rate Julian Williams, Demetrius Andrade and Jermell Charlo as having more power than Canelo at 154. Canelo is going to have a demanding time landing his power shots if he stays at 160. Unless Canelo is going to fight only the lesser guys in the division, he’s going to need to fight Danny Jacobs and Jermall Chalro. Those are both tall guys with major power, who aren’t easy to hit.
”He was the smaller guy fighting the natural middleweight, who has been there his entire career,” said Garcia about Canelo. ”So he was naturally the smaller guy going up to a bigger weight class, and he held his own. So, I think Canelo wasn’t used to the weight. If you get big in between fights, it doesn’t mean it’s your natural weight,” said Garcia.
When Garcia says Canelo was the smaller guy, he obviously means he was the shorter guy. Canelo looked like he was heavier than Golovkin inside the ring. I wouldn’t be surprised if Cnaelo outweighed GGG by 10 lbs. in the fight. Canelo had the weight advantage, but he was giving up the reach and the height advantage. Ultimately, Canelo’s lack of height and led to him getting out-boxed failing to get the win. It’s going to be a challenge for Canelo to get to Golovkin in the rematch without a complete change of his fighting style. Canelo will need to become Golovkin-esque by taking the fight to him for 3 minutes of every round, and I’m not sure that he can do that. If Golovkin stands his ground and meets Canelo head on, we could see the Golden Boy star wind up getting knocked out for the first time in his career. You have to remember, Golovkin has fought with his slugging style his entire career against guys in the middleweight division. Canelo has spent much of his career at welterweight and junior middleweight fighting guys that have frequently been lighter than him. They may not have been shorter, but they’ve often been lighter.
