By Jeff Aranow: Bernard Hopkins applauds Saul Canelo Alvarez for showing that he’s not afraid of Gennady Golovkin during their face-off on Friday at the weigh-in. Canelo charged Golovkin and then planted his forehead against his in an aggressive manner, which suggested that he wasn’t afraid of him. Hopkins likens what Canelo did to that of a person showing a bully that he wasn’t afraid of them.
GGG and Canelo will be fighting on Saturday night in a rematch on HBO PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The winner of the fight will be able to proudly say they’re the number one middleweight in the division. The loser will need to walk and figure out which direction they want to take their career. Golovkin is the betting favorite, but Canelo has a lot of boxing fans that still believe in him despite him being seen as the loser of the first fight with Golovkin.
Hopkins says he saw fear in Golovkin’s face when Canelo stood up to him during the face-off. Hopkins isn’t basing his opinions on the entire fight just off of what he saw in the face-off, but he definitely liked what he saw.
“I saw something in Gennady Golovkin’s face that said, ‘I got a problem. This guy’s not afraid of me.’ When a guy says, ‘I’m not afraid of you,’ that’s something,” Hopkins said to Fighthub in talking about his belief that Canelo isn’t afraid of GGG. “A bully sits back and do this [Hopkins shows a look of fear on his face to mimic what a bully would do]. Now he’s saying, ‘I ain’t running today,’ even though he [Canelo] didn’t run the first time. ‘I’m not scared of you,’ that’s the mental warfare that’s going on,” Hopkins said about Canelo not being afraid of GGG.
Golovkin didn’t show fear of Canelo when he came up to him. GGG seemed very calm. He didn’t flinch when Canelo put his forehead against his. Immediately after Canelo did that, he was pulled back by his Golden Boy team. From there, Canelo’s trainer Eddy Reynoso shoved someone from GGG’s team, and then the fighters walked away in different directions. There wasn’t much to see to where you could make an observation about Canelo or Golovkin being afraid. They both seemed to be fine.
“I think Canelo wins,” said Mikey Garcia to fighthub in predicting a victory for Alvarez over GGG. “I think Canelo boxes and uses combinations to win the fight. I think Golovkin will come with a lot of pressure. I think he needs to throw a lot of combinations also. Instead of looking for one big shot, he needs to come with more volume and throw more punches. I think Canelo is a little more clever with his boxing skills. They’re more refined. That’ why he’s going to win. I think Canelo wins by a decision,” Mikey said.
Canelo would be wise to box Golovkin rather than slug, but he might want to prove to his critics and to the boxing fans that he can stand up to GGG. If Canelo decides to slug with GGG, then he would have a chance of quieting his many critics.
”I think Canelo by decision, but if Canelo wants to throw with more power, then I think Gennady Golovkin,” Juan Manuel Marquez said to Fighthub.
Marquez and Mikey Garcia both feel that Canelo should box Golovkin. That might not be easy for him to do if Golovkin is going to be putting a lot of pressure on him. Unless Canelo is going to run around the ring like he was doing in the final seconds of the 12th to get away from Golovkin, he’s going to have problems with his pressure. Marquez struggled in his fights against Manny Pacquiao. Despite being a great counter puncher, Marquez always had problems with Pacquiao’s aggressive style of fighting. Canelo could have problems too if GGG is able to put more pressure on him than he did in their first fight.
