By Dan Ambrose: Saul Canelo Alvarez says he’s going to be making the necessary adjustments in the September 15th rematch against middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin to beat him when the two step inside the ring for their rematch at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The adjustments that Canelo needs to make for the rematch against Triple G are obvious ones.
Last time Canelo refused to stand his ground or come forward to engage with Golovkin until the final three rounds. When Canelo did finally press forward in rounds 10, 11 and 12, he only did it in the first minute of the rounds. Golovkin gave ground each time Canelo would come forward in the last three rounds, and this seemed to impress the three judges. All three of them gave Canelo the last three rounds. I don’t know if you can say that Canelo deserved to win the 10, 11 and 12th, but that’s a different matter. What Canelo showed in those last three rounds is he could get the better of Golovkin when he was coming forward. What Canelo failed to do is sustain his forward pressure for more than one minute of each of the final three rounds, which is why it’s hard to agree that he deserved to win those rounds.
“They disrespected me for everything they have been saying, everything they have been doing, all their actions,” Canelo said. ”On Sept. 15, I’m going to do the necessary adjustments and the necessary things to win.”
The changes Canelo needs to make in his game to beat Triple G won’t be easy for him to do, because he lacks the size to beat the 5’10 ½” Golovkin. Canelo is just 5’8”, and that’s short for the middleweight division. Moreover, Canelo is very stocky for the 160lb weight class, and that means that he’s going to have problems moving away from GGG this time.
In the previous Canelo-GGG fight, Golovkin stayed on the outside making it easy for Canelo to get away from him so he could get rest breaks. Golovkin will likely not give Canelo space that he requires for him to dart to his left to avoid his pressure. If Canelo can’t get Golovkin off of him for an instant on September 15, it’s going to be a real mess for the Mexican fighter unless he’s made dramatic changes to his stamina. I don’t think Canelo has fixed those problems.
Canelo and GGG won’t be meeting face-to-face during the press conferences until the last week of the fight. This is what Canelo wants. He doesn’t want to face GGG for some odd reason. Some boxing fans believe that Canelo doesn’t want the disappointed and/or angry looks that Golovkin will likely give him due to the Mexican fighter having tested positive twice for the banned performance enhancing substance clenbuterol last February. Clenbuterol is a substance that improves the stamina for athletes.
It obviously doesn’t look good that Canelo tested positive for a substance that improves conditioning given that his major problem against Golovkin last September was his conditioning. Canelo says he ate tainted beef. Golovkin doesn’t believe that to be the case. What’s more disappointing than the no face-to-face meetings between Canelo and Golovkin at the press conferences is the face that there won’t be an HBO Faceoff with Max Kellerman to help sell the fight.
A lot of boxing would have enjoyed seeing Canelo and Golovkin sitting across from each other answering questions directed at them by Kellerman on his HBO Faceoff special. Canelo’s decision not to meet with GGG until the week of the fight definitely hurts the promotion for the fight. If there’s going to be a third Canelo-GGG fight, one would hope that Canelo is willing to stand face-to-face with Golovkin and be in the same room with him for an interview by Kellerman. There are certain things that are expected from fighters during mega-fights, and one of them is for them to be willing to at least be able to stand facing their opponents at close range. Canelo’s
decision not to allow that for the Golovkin rematch is strange. You have to wonder whether Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions made an effort to try and get him to change his mind about his decision not to stand face to face with GGG.
The Canelo-Golovkin satellite media session via Facebook on Tuesday was a nice move on the part of the two fighters to increase the hype for their September 15 rematch on HBO pay-per-view, but it’s a poor substitute for face offs between them and the banter that you would expect from a meeting with Kellerman on his Faceoff specials on HBO. Canelo won’t be able to face Golovkin and show the boxing public that he’s not afraid of him and is willing to face him.
Canelo perhaps has more bad blood for Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez than he does for Triple G, and that’s because he’s been getting worked over by him ever since the first fight ended. Sanchez calls Canelo a “runner”, and he says he used a hand-wrapping technique for the last GGG fight that is considered illegal in other states but is legal in Nevada.
“This man (Sanchez) just likes to talk. He likes to talk a lot and bring up every excuse possible, but you’ll see, on Sept. 15, what Canelo Alvarez is all about and what he’s capable of doing,” Canelo said in speaking in the third person.
Golovkin will have his IBO, WBA and WBO middleweight titles on the line for his second fight against Canelo on HBO pay-per-view on September 15. The start time for the Canelo-Golovkin II rematch is at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT. GGG was furious with the way his fight with Canelo was scored by the three judges last September in Las Vegas. Two of the judges turned in scores that failed to match how the boxing public viewed the fight.
The fans thought Golovkin won by at least four rounds. One judge gave the fight to Canelo by a 10 rounds to 2 score. Another judge scored it even at 6-6 after Canelo round 7, which was the best round of the fight for Golovkin in the eyes of many boxing fans. The media thought Golovkin had done enough to deserve the victory. It made Canelo look bad that the judges gave him a draw. It gave the impression to some fans that Canelo was given special treatment by the judges to save him from a well-deserved loss. The draw helped Golovkin get a rematch with Canelo, but he likely would have gotten the rematch anyway even if the judges had given him the victory.
Where the draw could hurt the rematch is in the pay-per-view numbers. A lot of boxing fans are saying they won’t purchase the second Canelo-Golovkin fight because they don’t believe that the judges will be fair and score it to the true winner of the fight. In other words, these fans believe that Canelo will win a decision no matter what if the fight goes to the scorecards. We’ll have to see if the fans do stay away in large numbers. If the rematch does bring in far fewer PPV buys than the 1.3 million from the first fight, then one plausible explanation will be that the fans didn’t believe that the fight would be scored in a fair manner by the Nevada judges that work the fight, because that’s the argument that many boxing fans are making now for why they won’t buy the fight the second time around.
It doesn’t help the promotion that Canelo isn’t willing to meet with Golovkin for a face-to-face meeting until the last week of the fight. It’s potentially crippling the rematch, which already has two strikes against it due to Canelo’s two positive tests for clenbuterol and the controversial draw from the first fight. Fans are also saying they don’t want to order the rematch because they don’t want to pay to see a drug cheat. It’s obviously not good that Canelo tested positive for clenbuterol twice last February. It’s bad enough that the previous Canelo vs. Golovkin ended in a controversial draw in Las Vegas. Canelo’s promoter Tom Loeffler believes that his fighter
deserved the victory over Canelo by an 8 rounds to 4 score.
Canelo doesn’t seem to mind that a lot of people are upset with him after what has transpired since the first fight.
“I’ve always had detractors in my career, but there are always more people who support me than not, people have been supporting me, but in the end, people are with me or not, the only ones in the ring will be him and me,” Canelo said. ”That day will see who Canelo is, the respect we had was lost, I go with another mentality, whether the people are with me or not.”