By Sean Jones: Saul Canelo Alvarez says he’ll be able to fight Gennady Golovkin against the ropes or in the middle of the ring on September 15 due to his lack of punching power. Surprisingly, Canelo says Golovkin doesn’t possess the punching power that everyone said he did. This is something that Canelo told the boxing fans at ringside at the T-Mobile last September after fought to a controversial 12 round draw in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The fans immediately showered Canelo with boos, because he came across as a poor loser even though he had been given a draw by the judges. The fans didn’t agree with the results of the fight considering that the contest had largely been controlled by GGG against a tired looking Canelo.
“One of the reasons I fought on the ropes to invite him in is because I never felt the power that everybody said,” Canelo said to Fighthype. “I mean, he has a punch, of course, but it was never the power that everybody said. We can adapt at the center of the ring or the ropes,” Canelo said.
I believe that the real reason why Canelo fought against the ropes is because he didn’t possess the stamina to stay in the center of the ring. When Canelo was against the ropes, he would try and land a quick counter to impress the judges. Canelo would then move away to his left to keep from getting hit in return by Golovkin. What Canelo didn’t account for in his game plan was Golovkin staying on the outside and using his long reach and power jab to dominate him. Canelo was clearly getting the worst of it when Golovkin was on the outside. Golovkin dominated when the two were fighting at a distance, although that obviously wasn’t reflected in the scores by the assigned judges by the Nevada Athletic Commission.
One of the reasons why Canelo didn’t feel the punching power of GGG is because the Kazakhstan fighter often had to take the power off his shots in order to land them. Canelo, 27, was using so much head movement when he was stationary that made it difficult for Golovkin to land his power shots with any degree of accuracy. Golovkin wasn’t throwing body punches, which would have increased his chances of connecting, but it would have left him in the position to where he would be countered. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez says Golovkin didn’t want to throw body shots after he was warned earlier in the fight by the referee to stop hitting Canelo in the back. Sanchez says Canelo would turn his back to Golovkin each time he would throw a body shot in order to get the referee to warn Golovkin to stop throwing shots to the body. In looking back at the fight, Canelo was clearly turning his back when Golovkin would throw a body shot. The referee failed to catch this move on Canelo’s part.
”Yes, I’m going to prepare for that,” Canelo said to Fighthype.
To get the knockout he speaks of, Canelo will need to throw more punches and stand in front of Golovkin. Canelo will need to fight Golovkin the way he fought Amir Khan, Alfredo Angulo and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Canelo wasn’t afraid to stand in front of those fighters, perhaps because they lacked the punching power, speed and talent to give him problems. Angulo and Chavez Jr. are classic pressure fighters, but they both looked weak and weight drained during their fights with Alvarez. Both guys had dropped a great deal of weight during their training camps in preparation and were in condition to give Canelo any kind of fight. Those fights were won by Canelo the moment Golden Boy Promotions signed them to the fight. Neither guy was relevant in this day and age in their respective divisions.
”I always teach my guys to go for the knockout, but it’s got to be a guy that wants to fight for that to
happen,” trainer Abel Sanchez said to Fighthype. ”If Canelo wants to knockout Golovkin, then he’s going to have to be in place at a distance for him to knock him out, then they can exchange. Canelo has been talking the most about hurting Golovkin and knocking him out. Oscar De La Hoya says he’s mad. I hope so because we’re all going to be treated to a fight that we wanted the first time,” Sanchez said.
If nothing else, Canelo will likely try a different game plan in the rematch with Golovkin because he and his trainers Chepo and Eddy Reynoso will realize that he’s going to be ready for his movement and playing possum along the ropes if he goes back to the same strategy that he used in the previous fight. However, Canelo’s build in cardio problems are going to ultimately force him to go back to the same thing he did in the previous fight. It’s all well and good that Canelo is staying that Golovkin isn’t a big puncher and that he’s going to stand and fight him in the center of the ring on September 15, but what it’s going to come down to is the lack of cardio that will force Alvarez to revert to the same game plan from the first fight. In any one on one sport if an athlete lacks the cardiovascular system to get the better of their opponents, they’re at a huge disadvantage. Unfortunately for Canelo, he wasn’t born with the cardio system for face paced fights. Canelo does have a lot of things going for him in terms of his hand speed, counter punching, heavy hands and defensive ability, but his major limitations is his cardio and his lack of size for the middleweight division. Once he fatigues in each round, Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) will need to use movement to escape the pressure from Golovkin. That means Canelo will need to get on his bike to avoid GGG. We won’t see Canelo staying in the center of the ring for any length of time because he’s incapable of doing that. Even against lighter punchers like Austin Trout, Canelo couldn’t stay in the center of the ring. Once Canelo exhausted himself, he spent the entire second half of the fight against the ropes. Canelo was only 22-years-old when he fought Trout, and he didn’t have the cardiovascular system to stand and fight him.
”We’re going to try and go after him and knock him out,” Sanchez said about Golovkin wanting to go after Canelo Alvarez to knock him out in their rematch on September 15. ”If he runs, it’s not going to be an excuse on my part because we’re going to do what we do.”
Well, there’s a way for Golovkin to knockout Canelo even if he runs from him for the entire fight. The way to knockout Canelo is to stay close to him to not allow him to move around the ring. Golovkin can’t stay on the outside if he wants to keep Canelo from running from him, because if he chooses to stay at range, Alvarez will surely move to his left all night long to keep from being forced to fight at a hard and fast pace. If Golovkin can stay at close range, he can move with Canelo and force him into a last stand type situation very quickly in the fight. If Canelo can’t get his rest breaks to recover, the fight will be over with within three to four rounds. Canelo will grow tired, lose his power on his shots and wind up getting taken out with a body or head shot.