By Logan Garcia: Saul Canelo Alvarez says he’ll give Gennady Golovkin a third fight after beating him by a 12 round unanimous decision in their rematch on Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada. Canelo picked up his 50th win of his career in capturing Golovkin’s WBA and WBC middleweight titles, which made him none too happy.
Golovkin, now 38-1-1, stormed out of the ring without being interviewed by HBO’s interviewer Max Kellerman immediately after the results of the fight were announced. Canelo (50-1-2, 34 KOs) won by the scores 114-114, 115-113 and 115-113. In the end, GGG didn’t show class in storming out of the ring like an angry child. It would have been nice for Golovkin to have stayed around, showed some class, congratulated Canelo and given a post fight interview to Kellerman.
The fight took place at the T-Mobile Arena.
“If people want another fight, we’ll do it again,” Canelo said after the fight. “We’ll do it again no doubt.”
Golovkin hasn’t said whether he’ll take Canelo up on his offer to fight him again for a third time, but considering how much money he stands to gain by fighting the Mexican star again, it’s likely that he’ll accept the offer. Golovkin won’t make nearly as much money fighting other top fighters, especially now that he’s no longer a world champion. Golovkin made only $1 million for his last fight against Vanes Martirosyan. If Golovkin faces regular contender’s ion the division rather than Canelo, the money is going to be considerably less.
Canelo, 28, could afford to be charitable to Golovkin given that the scoring was favorable to him. In the first fight with GGG, the judges gave Canelo what many people in the boxing world felt was a controversial draw last year in September.
International Boxing Federation welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. wasn’t impressed wih the way that Golovkin fought Canelo, and he felt he deserved a loss. Spence doesn’t understand why Golovkin was backing up when Canelo was attacking him throughout the fight. Spence says Golovkin wasn’t fighting with the ‘Mexican style’ that he talks about using.
“I like Canelo. I don’t know how GGG fights Mexican style when he backs up, moving and trying to box,” Errol Spence said to Villian Fy. “If you want to fight, fight. Canelo stood there and tried to fight him, but he kept backing up and tried to box him,” a disgusted sounding Spence said.
Golovkin didn’t want to come forward or even stand his ground. That’s why he ended up failing to get the victory in the fight. It was a fight that was a winnable one for GGG, but he failed to back up his tough talk about wanting Canelo to come at him. Spence would have likely done a far better job than Golovkin did tonight.
“The rematch was better than the original,” said HBO commentator Max Kellerman in talking about the Canelo vs. GGG rematch on Saturday. “It was a fight for GGG to win, and he almost did. It was a close fight. [It was understood that] he would have to pressure Canelo, fight him on the ropes. He didn’t do it one time. It was Canelo. It was Canelo that was the aggressor. GGG was disappointing in that he came out tentatively. He didn’t show as much aggressiveness. He [GGG] never went to the body, hardly at all,” Kellerman said. “He didn’t improve on any of the mistakes from the first fight. But he did something even more impressive in my estimation. He seemed to change his fate when I had already been written. Canelo was fighting his kind of fight that he wanted to author. He was hitting GGG to the body. GGG looked old. He was huffing and puffing and gasping for air, and it looked to me like Canelo was on his way to a knockout. Just when it looked like GGG couldn’t hurt this guy and couldn’t outwork this guy. He could land more punches, but they weren’t the damaging ones. What was he going to do? GGG reached another level. He emptied the gas tank, and the gas tank was enough to get him to the end of the fight, to get a lot of fans out there saying, ‘I thought GGG won the fight or at least it was a draw or a very, very close fight. That was an amazing performance by a 36-year-old, who looked beaten and wouldn’t accept his fate. I’m disappointed that he wouldn’t talk to us, because I’m very interested in hearing what he has to say right now. But congratulations to Canelo Alvarez, who has established himself where at one point people said he’s doing it with smoke and mirrors, and he’s a creature of a hype machine, and he’s not the next great Mexican fighter. Oh yes he is, and this fight proves it,” Kellerman said.
Let’s get one thing clear right now. It was Canelo who was the aggressor for 90% of the fight. When Golovkin would come forward, it was only briefly and he would quickly back away and let him take control. Golovkin looked afraid just like he was in the Daniel Jacobs fight. GGG has lost his nerve and now he gives in when he’s met with adversity.
Kellerman is being extremely kind to Golovkin by saying that he fought fell in coming back in the later rounds of the fight. The truth of the matter is Golovkin didn’t fight better. He fought poorly, and looked like he din’t want any part of Canelo. Golovkin fought exactly like he did in his first fight with Canelo and in his bout with Daniel Jacobs.
Golovkin has a bad habit of giving ground when his opponents attack. If Golovkin had stood his ground against Canelo in their two fights and in his match with Jacobs last year, there’s no telling what would have happened. I guess we’ll never know for sure. What we do know is Golovkin seemed to lose his nerve every time those fighters came forward. It’s not surprising that Canelo’s trainers spotted this flaw in Golovkin’s game, because they were smart to attack him
Canelo was pleased after the results of the fight, shouting after they let him know that he had won the fight. It must have been a huge sigh of relief for Canelo. He was able to beat the guy that has been trash talking him endlessly.
