By Sean Jones: Vasyl Lomachenko says he’s very interested in seeing the rematch between middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez this year. Lomachenko, who holds the WBO super featherweight title, says he thought Golovkin deserved the 12 round decision over Canelo last September in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Lomachenko said Golovkin did enough to get the nod by the judges. However, Lomachenko didn’t like the lack of action in the fight. Lomachenko especially didn’t enjoy the tactics Canelo used in the fight, which involved a lot of movement along the ropes, and very little engaging. Canelo was fighting a very passive fight along the ropes.
Canelo and Triple G are in negotiations for a rematch on May 5 on HBO pay-per-view. It’s widely believed the rematch will take place once again in Las Vegas, Nevada. That’s where Golden Boy Promotions wants the fight. Canelo fights in Vegas frequently. It’s a good deal for Canelo to keep fighting there. Given the way the judges scored the previous Canelo-GGG fight last September, it might not be a good idea for Golovkin to go back to Las Vegas for a second fight against Canelo. But if Golovkin has no other choice but to fight Canelo in Vegas for him to get the rematch, then he’ll have to agree to it and hope the judging is better than last time he fought there.
“It was a good fight, interesting fight,” said Lomachenko to ES News Reporing, in talking about the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight. “I liked the way Canelo was boxing [and his] defense. He was missing a bit of punches to win. He lost the fight. Golovkin won, in my opinion,” said Lomachenko.
Both fighters missed a lot of punches. Canelo was missing because he was fighting with his back against the ropes looking to land counters all night long. Canelo fought like someone that was just coasting and not trying to win. Most of the rounds involved Golovkin jabbing Canelo hard to the head. Every once in a while, Canelo would land a single shot, but that was about it. Canelo would land 2 or 3 punches in each round, whereas Golovkin would connect with 20+ head-snapping jabs. The judges liked Canelo’s low volume work rate more than the constant jabs that Golovkin was hitting him with. It looked like Canelo was losing every round. Golovkin was in control of the rounds, and doing most of the work throughout the 12 round contest. Canelo was limited by his timid approach to the fight, as well as his poor stamina. Due to his poor conditioning, Canelo literally couldn’t fight hard for more than 1 minute without gassing. All the fighting that Canelo did was in the first minute of every round. Canelo was done after the first minute. He’d spend the last 2 minutes of each round resting on the ropes, and looking red-faced and out of breath. Just how the judges could give Canelo a draw in the fight is the big question.
“What he [Canelo] was doing in the ring, I didn’t like, and I’m not talking as a fan right now,” said Lomachenko about Canelo. “As a person who boxes and knows boxing, I’m talking about it from the angle of the game plan, tactics and using [boxing] skills in the fight. I didn’t like the action in the fight. No decision for the winner can be made,” said Lomachenko.
Canelo and Golovkin need to fight differently in the rematch to make sure the judges are able to determine a clear winner. For Golovkin, he needs to assume that the judges won’t give him a decision win if he merely boxes Canelo for 12 rounds. Floyd Mayweather was able to get a decision win over Canelo by boxing from the outside, but I think it’s a different story for Golovkin. He needs to get in there and look to knock Canelo out to make sure the judges don’t trip him up again.
For Canelo to beat GGG in the rematch, he needs to stay off the ropes and try and fight Golovkin in the center of the ring. Unfortunately, I don’t know if Canelo can do that through. His stamina has never been good as a pro, but it’s worse now since he packed on a lot of muscle weight. Canelo looks like he bulked up 15 to 20 pounds for the last fight. If Canelo chooses to keep that weight on for the rematch, it’s going to be impossible for him to fight more than 1 minute of each round. If Golovkin pushes the fight and forces Canelo to fight at a fast pace, he might fold and get stopped. That’s how you knockout a fighter like Canelo. You push him into a dog fight by throwing nonstop punches. Once Canelo gasses out at the 1 minute mark, then Golovkin needs to keep nailing him until the referee stops the fight. Canelo will probably run like he did last time after gasses out at the 1 minute mark of each round. Golovkin will need to be faster to stay on top of him, because he’ll do that every round. Canelo will try and win the rounds based on what he does in the first minute of the rounds. If the judges score rounds only on activity done in the first minute of the rounds, like we saw from 2 of the judges in the Canelo-Golovkin fight last September, then we could see either Canelo getting a controversial decision win or a controversial draw. Golovkin would be smart to make sure the rematch doesn’t place in Nevada. Golovkin needs the second Canelo fight to take place in a neutral venue, not one that would work against him. The outcome of the second fight could be determined based on the quality of the judges assigned to the fight. If we get similar judges as last time, then we could see the same result or a win for Canelo.
You can understand why a fighter like Lomachenko would dislike the way Canelo fought, because that’s not how he would ever fight someone. Lomacheno isn’t the type to play possum on the ropes for 12 rounds the way Canelo did. Lomachenko is also not someone that would try and win a fight by throwing single pot shots the way Canelo was doing for 12 rounds. That’s not how Lomachenko fights, and I doubt that he would ever teach a fighter to use that type of approach.
“He [Golovkin] won the fight and that means he did enough for it,” said Lomachenko in talking about Golovkin. “It’s interesting to see the rematch.”
There’s still no indication of when or if the negotiations will be completed for the Canelo vs. GGG rematch for their May 5th rematch. They were supposed to have the negotiations wrapped up by Christmas. The fact that the fight still isn’t done is a bad sign. It means that there could be some problems in the negotiations.
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler hasn’t said who he has as a backup Plan-B option for Golovkin to fight in April or May in case the Canelo rematch doesn’t take place. Daniel Jacobs is fighting in April in New York. He’d like to fight Golovkin. WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders also has volunteered to fight Golovkin. Sergey Derevyanchenko and Jermall Charlo are also excellent backup options for Golovkin.
