By Sean Jones: Paulie Malignaggi says Gennady Golovkin was robbed for the second time in his rematch with Saul Canelo Alvarez last Saturday night in Las Vegas, Nevada. Malignaggi says the fight should have been either 7 rounds to 5 for Golovkin or at worst a draw.
In no way did Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KOs) win 7 rounds in the fight, which is what two of the Nevada judges had him winning in giving him a 12 round majority decision by the scores 115-113, 115-113 and 114-114. Malignaggi thinks it came down to the judges giving the fight to the money fighter Canelo by finding a way to give him rounds that he arguably didn’t deserve in the Canelo-GGG2 rematch at the T-Mobile Arena. Malignaggi states that the judges gave the win to the money fighter Canelo.
Malignaggi thinks Golovkin, 36, was robbed in the first fight with Canelo last September, and then given similar treatment in the rematch last Saturday night on HBO PPV. Malignaggi admits that Canelo, 28, did better in the rematch, but he still failed to deserve a victory. Malignaggi believes that the judges saw that Canelo was throwing as hard as he could and then weighed his punches more than Golovkin’s, because were thrown in an “effortless” manner that made it seem like he wasn’t throwing with the same kind of power.
“I think Canelo did better in this fight than he did the first time around,” Malignaggi said to Off The Ball about Alvarez’s rematch with Golovkin last Saturday. “I think anybody with a reasonable brain wouldn’t be able to give Canelo more than six rounds. The first time around if you gave Golovkin a draw, which they did, you robbed him. This time around if you gave Golovkin a draw, it would have been fair or a Golovkin win. I don’t think Canelo won eight rounds to win the fight. You have to win seven rounds to win a fight. You can’t find me a case of Canelo winning seven rounds to win the fight. Once again, I felt they robbed Gennady Golovkin,” Malignaggi said.
More and more boxing fans that originally felt that Canelo deserved the win or a draw in the rematch are now saying that they’re changed their mind and think that GGG deserved the victory. The fans saw how Golovkin’s shots had more power on them, and that Canelo’s shots were missing and being blocked on his gloves. The fans notice that Canelo gassed out after the first six rounds and was getting worked over by Golovkin in the last half of the bout. Even when Canelo was walking forward against a tired-looking Golovkin, he was still getting the worst of it.
”Here’s the problem for somebody scoring it for Canelo,” Malignaggi said. ”You’re looking for any kind of explosion for Canelo. If it’s in the last 20 seconds, you’re automatically giving him the round. That’s how these people are judging their fights, and that’s how the boxing judges are judging where money fighters are involved. They watch the fight looking for a reason to give the money fighter a round, then they give them the round. That’s why these judges are such animals. You’re dealing with complete animals here,” Malignaggi said.
Well, if the judges gave the rounds to Canelo based on his popularity rather than on what went on inside the ring, you can argue that it wouldn’t have been the first time that a popular fighter won a fight that they didn’t appear to deserve. That kind of thing goes on all the time. Golovkin was already behind the eight ball when his promoter agreed to have the rematch with Canelo take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, the city where he always fights nowadays, and at the same venue as the first fight. GGG’s promoter Tom
Loeffler agreeing with Golden Boy Promotions to have the second fight with Canelo take place in Las Vegas was the biggest hint that there would be trouble brewing ahead. Unfortunately with the second Canelo-GGG2 fight being a controversial one; it hurts both fighters as well as Golden Boy. Whether Canelo and Golden Boy want to admit it or not, they came out of last Saturday’s rematch with GGG just as much of a loser as him. In fact, Canelo and Golden Boy might be worse off than they were going into the fight because now they’re viewed as having been given a gift decision that they didn’t deserve. Boxing fans are crying robbery and are totally disgusted.
”Just because he [Canelo] has moments in rounds doesn’t mean you have to give him the rounds, especially when he lost the rest of the round,” Malignaggi said. ”If I give Canelo the last round, I give him a draw. If I give Golovkin the last round, I have it 7-5 for Golovkin. If you’re using the same judging criteria for every round, you’ll not find seven rounds to give to Canelo. If you change your judging criteria from one round to the next, just to give Canelo a round, then, yes, of course, you’ll find seven rounds to give to Canelo. They’re just not there,” Malignaggi said.
The boxing fans that believed Canelo deserved the victory point out that he was walking down GGG, and for that reason, the judges made the right choice in giving him the win. However, Golovkin was fighting on his back foot, hitting Canelo with powerful head-snapping jabs, left hooks and rights. Canelo was walking into huge shots the entire fight, which made his forward pressure ineffective. Despite making the fight closer than last time they, Canelo still appeared to lose the fight in the eyes of a lot of the boxing public and media. From round eight onward, Canelo was gassed out and weak from the pace of the fight. You can argue that Canelo was punch drunk from having eaten so many hard shots to the head, and his arms looked rubbery. From that point on, it was impossible for a lot of boxing fans to give Canelo any of the last five rounds of the fight. Golovkin had won at least two of the first seven rounds, possibly three. If you add five + three, you get eight rounds for GGG. Canelo won four rounds, but that was it.
”Golovkin throws power punches effortlessly. We know they’re power punches because he effortlessly knocks guys out with them,” Malignaggi said. ”So when he’s effortlessly throwing his shots, they don’t look as big as when guys go down, but they’re still big shots, [GGG should be getting credit for them],” Malignaggi said. ”Canelo, on the other hand, throws wider shots and they’re more explosive. He actually looks like he’s trying to throw harder. Golovkin’s power is so natural that he looks effortlessly there. It’s hard and there’s dynamite in there. We’ve seen all kinds of guys get knocked out by effortless punches by Golovkin. So with Golovkin’s style and his arsenal, he throws punches effortlessly, just because a guy isn’t going down, you don’t rate them less than the punches Canelo is throwing because Canelo looks like he’s trying to throw hard punches. They’re still good shots from both guys, and Golovkin is still landing more of them,” Malignaggi said.
Golovkin’s shots don’t always look as powerful as some fighters because he lacks fast hand speed, and it looks so effortless. Golovkin has a strong frame and that helps him generate tons of power without looking muscular. In contrast, the heavily muscled Canelo looks like a little bulldog with his stocky Eugene Sandow type of body. The fact that Canelo can’t punch as hard as Golvokin despite having a more muscular body shots that punching power has nothing to do with muscles. It’s often that the muscular guys can’t punch as hard as the thinner types of fighters. Never the less, the Nevada judges have been impressed with Canelo in his last two fights with GGG, and they’ve failed to give the Mexican fighter losses that many boxing fans, fighters and members of the media believed that he deserved.
”There’s the problems with the judges being influenced by them, because you’re going to choose who you’re going to be influenced by,” Malignaggi said. ”If you’re looking for a reason to give somebody a round, you’re going to find it. There’s three minutes in a round. You’ll find a reason to give a round. They went into every round looking for a reason to give a round to Canelo, and two of them found a reason to give Canelo seven rounds,” Malignaggi said about the judges.
Golovkin is still seen as the champion today. A lot of boxing fans are saying that the judges and Golden Boy Promotions robbed Golovkin. In the court of public opinion, a massive percentage of the boxing public saw GGG getting robbed last Saturday night. Since so many fans disagree with the decision, it might be better off if the Nevada Commission make a ruling by nullifying Canelo’s victory and instead ruling it a no contest. If Canelo and Golovkin have a do-over in December, then the fans can get peace of mind with a different set of judges and a different venue outside of Nevada. Having the third Canelo vs. Golovkin fight in Las Vegas would be a huge mistake because of the two controversial decisions that have taken place there between the fighters. When you have a controversial result in one venue, it’s plain lunacy to agree to go back to the same venue. Team Golovkin only has themselves to blame for going back to the T-Mobile Arena. Going back to the same venue was GGG and company asking for trouble.
“Clenbuterol is a drug that you usually mix with other drugs,” Malignaggi said. “There may have been other drugs that he was using that he didn’t get caught for. The months that he was banned for aren’t typically enough to clear out from your system. Yeah, you’ll test negative, but you’re still getting benefits from them. In the time he took to fight Golovkin, he was probably still benefitting from the drugs the drugs that he took just months ago. He’s still going to get benefit from those drugs. We don’t know for a fact, but clenbuterol is drug that you typically mix with other drugs. Usually when somebody is cheating, they’re cheating. Usually when you get caught with a banned substance, you don’t halfway use the banned substance. You use the banned substance all the way. Long term, people are going to forget about all of this. This is the way cheaters benefit in the end, because you’re going to forget about all of this. In 10 to 15 years from now are people going to remember that he got caught with banned drugs right before the fight? No, they’re going to remember the results. They’re not even going to remember the fight was controversial,” Malignaggi said about the Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 rematch.
Malignaggi is right about his opinion that in 10 to 15 years, no one will remember tha Canelo ever tested positive for clenbuterol twice and that his win over GGG was controversial. The only thing the boxing fans will remember is the results of the fight. Of course, the boxing fans that do remember the results will see Canelo as a fake, and many of them will have developed less trust for the sport. When fans see boxing as a business in which a winner is selected ahead of time based on his popularity and the money he brings to a needy city, then the sport is no longer seen as a true sport. Once fans start seeing boxing as on the level of professional wrestling where it’s more about theatrics and not a true sport when it involves stars, then it’s going to start a downward decline for boxing. For fans to want to keep watching the sport, they have to trust the results. It can’t go back to how the sport was viewed by a lot of people in the old days.
“I think the fight can happen again,” Malignaggi said about the Canelo vs. GGG rivalry. ”The reason why the fight can happen again is because Golovkin is getting older. I don’t think they’re going to give it to him right away. Here’s what I predict. This is a business. Canelo is going to fight David Lemieux in May. That’s an easy fight to make because Golden Boy has Lemieux and Canelo. So you make Canelo-Lemieux in May, and then you wait until September to make the Golovkin third fight. Now Golovkin is a full year older; he’s 37. When you’re in your second half of your 30s, you’re getting older. You’re not getting better. So it’s only more advantageous to Canelo to beat Golovkin more easily this time as opposed to controversially and that kind of puts a stamp on everything. What’s Golovkin going to do? There’s so much money on the table. He’s going to take it. What else is he going to do? You can’t turn that kind of money down. You’re going to take it. The ball is in Canelo’s court, and he’s going to do what he wants to do with it,” Malignaggi said.
Malignaggi might be correct about Golovkin being made to wait another year until September 2019 before h gets a second fight against Canelo Alvarez. Oscar De La Hoya said this week that he doesn’t see any point in a third fight taking place between Canelo and GGG right now. He thinks Golovkin needs to rebuild himself with a couple of wins before he’ll consider making a third fight with Alvarez. If Golovkin needs to fight twice before facing Canelo, then that means he won’t face him until September 2019 at the earliest, and it might not even be then because Golovkin might suffer injuries in one of both of his rebuilding fights.
