By Sean Jones: Amir Khan says he watched video of Saul Canelo Alvarez working out this week and he thinks he looks weaker than use to be in preparing for his September 15 rematch against Gennady Golovkin in Las Vegas, Nevada. Khan says he wants to see how the weaker Canelo, who he says is “off the juice,” does against the unbeaten middleweight champion Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) in their second fight on HBO pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Last February, Canelo was popped for testing twice for the performance enhancing substance clenbuterol, which he says isn’t an anabolic steroid. Nevertheless, clenbuterol is a banned substance by the Nevada State Athletic Commissions and other Commissions throughout the U.S.
“At the moment, I think Canelo beats him,” Khan said to ES News Reporting about Canelo vs. Jaime Munguia. ”Now that Canelo is off the juice, I’d like to see how he’s going to fight. You know what’s funny? I saw a video of him training yesterday. That same amount of explosiveness and that same amount of power that he used to generate when he would hit the bags is not the same. I don’t know if it’s because I’m being biased that he was on something (clenbuterol). I was paying attention because I fought the guy, so I was thinking, ‘I never seen him not punch this hard,’” Khan said.
I saw video of Canelo working out this week as well, and thing that I noticed is his physique doesn’t look nearly as big, cut up or as well defined as it was last September when he fought GGG to a controversial 12 round draw in Las Vegas. The judges’ decision was panned by the boxing world. The fans saw the scores handed down by the judges as being ridiculous, as Golovkin appeared to win the fight in a clear victory. However, Canelo was the A-side in the fight, and his promoters at Golden Boy were the lead promoters in the contest.
”Normally he hits a lot harder and the bag is making a lot more noise,” Khan said about Canelo. ”The punches are making a lot more noise.”
Canelo is likely going to be a lot weaker in the second fight than he was in the first one because he’s trying improve his cardio, which was his biggest problem in the previous fight with Golovkin. Canelo was too tired to throw punches after the first minute of each round, and he basically gave Golovkin the last two third of each round. Only the judges know what they saw in Canelo’s performance that they felt was enough for him to be given a draw against Golovkin.
Khan still thinks Canelo will beat 21-year-old WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia (30-0, 25 KOs), who recently successfully defended his title in defeating Liam Smith by a 12 round unanimous decision in Las Vegas. Munguia is quickly becoming the new darling for HBO with his exciing fights and huge punching power. Khan still believes that the 27-year-old Canelo can beat Munguia if the two of them face each other right now, but he’s not sure what will happen in the future after the redheaded star faces Golovkin for the second time. Khan suspects that Canelo is going to take a lot of punishment from the powerful fists from GGG the second time around. Even without Canelo taking a beating from Golovkin, he would have problems with the 5’11” Munguia’s height, reach, body punching and heavy hands. Munguia is like a middleweight version of a young George Foreman. Everything Munguia throws has so much power. Munguia could wear Canelo down with his body punching. Canelo would need to start turning his back to Munguia like he was doing against Golovkin in hopes that the referee would needlessly warn him for hitting him in the back.
”Look, if he fought against this young kid (Munguia), at the moment, I’d give it to Canelo with his experience,” Khan said. ”But as time goes by, I don’t know what Canelo is going to be like when he comes back against Triple G. The first fight they had was a war. How much has the first fight taken out of him? Two back to back wars. Both guys were getting hit with big shots. That’s what makes the fight more exciting, because we want to see someone get knocked out. Basically both of them are knockout punchers, so I don’t think this one is going the distance. I think it’ll be a big war,” Khan said.
Khan is wrong about the first Canelo-Golovkin fight being a war. It wasn’t a war. Canelo was on his bike for 12 rounds trying not to get hit by Golovkin. For his part, Golovkin stayed on the outside and boxed with his jab instead of looking to take advantage of his superior size, punching power and stamina the way that he should have been doing.
”Liam is a warrior,” Khan said about former WBO junior middleweight champion Liam Smith. ”He never makes a fight boring and always gives it his all. This 21-year-old (Munguia) is a beast, man. There’s so much hype about this young kid, and he still took it,” Khan said about Smith taking Munguia’s best power shots for 12 rounds in losing a 12 round unanimous decision to him.
