By Sean Jones: Saul Canelo Alvarez appeared to intentionally sabotage his face-off with IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin at Friday’s weigh-in by coming in with his head first. Canelo banged heads with Golovkin, which led to a scuffle that forced both teams to separate the two fighters.
(Photo Credit: Tom Hogan-Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions)
The move by Canelo looked like a contrived trick to keep from making eye contact with GGG, who has been furious with the Golden Boy star since he learned of his positive tests for clenbuterol last February. Golovkin wasn’t messing around. He looked like he wanted to smash Canelo on the spot. GGG doesn’t play around with fighters that try and bang heads with him. This move by Canelo might make it worse for him tomorrow night because Golovkin will want to beat him even worse than he already did.
”I see he’s like a clown,” Golovkin said about Canelo.
Moments before the embarrassing display by Canelo at the face-off, he was booed loudly by the crowd while he was on the scales weighing in. This was a big departure from the previous weigh-in Canelo had a year ago for his first fight with Golovkin last September. The boxing crowd was on Canelo’s side at that time, and they cheered him loudly at the time.
What was interesting about Canelo’s Billy Goat move at the face-off was how calm Golovkin was. Golovkin looked powerful, calm and showed no fear at all of Canelo.
As far the weights go, Golovkin weighed 159.6 pounds to Canelo’s 159.4 pounds. Canelo looked as cut up and muscular as he did for the previous fight against GGG. Canelo has been looking really thin and small lately, but all of a sudden he’s packed on some muscles in the last three weeks. Maybe Canelo has been hitting the weights again. Canelo said that he ”defeated the weigh-in” and that he’s going to defeat GGG on Saturday.
The way that Canelo bum rushed Golovkin in coming at him like a human version of a Billy Goat, it looks like a trial run in how he plans on fighting Golovkin on Saturday night. Is Canelo going to purposefully sabotage himself by trying to prove to his boxing fans that he can stand up to Golovkin by fighting him toe-to-toe from start to finish? The head-butting episode from Friday’s weigh-in might be interpreted as a sign that Canelo could be looking to be disqualified on Saturday night by the judges. I don’t think that’s going to happen though, because he’s too popular and the referee isn’t likely going to want to put himself in position where he has a crowd furious at him for disqualifying Canelo.
The wild-eyed look on Canelo’s face at Friday’s weigh-in could mean that he’s going to go totally berserk inside the ring with GGG on Saturday night. That could be a good thing for him or a bad thing. The last thing that Golovkin will expect is Canelo going straight at him tooth and nail in the 1st round. If Canelo is willing to empty his gas tank in a wild shoot out in round 1, he might be able to get an off guard Golovkin out of there. That might be Canelo’s best way of winning, because if he doesn’t get GGG out right away, he’s going to be in for a long night. Golovkin looks mean and in shape and ready for Canelo.
