By Logan Garcia: The proud Mexican superstar Saul Canelo Alvarez is ready to face either Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin in a trilogy fight or Floyd Mayweather Jr. in rematches after he faces Rocky Fielding on December 15 in New York.
Always looking to please his boxing fans, Canelo (50-1-2, 34 KOs) wants to make his fans happy by giving them the fights they want to see against former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KOs) or unbeaten Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs). However, Canelo doubts that a rematch between him and the 41-year-old Mayweather is possible. Canelo sees Mayweather as not wanting to fight him ever again because it would be a risky fight for him.
Mayweather beat him five years ago when Canelo was only 22-years-old, and not in the prime of his career. Mayweather further had a advantage over Alvarez because the fight took place at a catchweight of 152 pounds, which left the Mexican warrior weakened and not at full strength.
“If the people want a third fight with pleasure I would give him a third fight,” said Canelo to skysports.com about a trilogy fight against Gennady Golovkin.
Before Canelo turn his sights to a third fight against Golovkin, he has to defeat Fielding (27-1, 15 KOs) on December 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York. This won’t be an easy win for Canelo, because it’s his first fight at 168 and he’s facing a much taller fighter in the 6’2” Fielding. During the meeting between the two fighters on Tuesday with the boxing media, Fielding towered over the 5’8” Canelo when the two of them met for a face off. The height difference between them is quite distinct.
Canelo handed Golovkin his first career defeat last September in beating him by a 12 round majority decision on HBO pay-per-view in Las Vegas, Nevada. There was no question who the better man was in the fight. Just looking at Golovkin’s bloody and beaten up face and comparing it to the fresh-faced Canelo, it was crystal clear who won the fight. This writer scored it for Canelo by a 10 rounds to 2 score. Golovkin was dominated in rounds 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 12. the only rounds in which GGG did well were the 10th and 11th. Even those rounds were quite close. Unfortunately, GGG, 36, didn’t take the loss well, as he stormed out of the ring after the fight without meeting with HBO to be interviewed by them to give credit to Canelo for a job well done in beating him. Golovkin looked like a sore loser, and it was a bad look on his career. If boxing fans remembered Canelo’s loss to Mayweather in 2013, he showed class in staying inside the ring after the fight to pay his respects to Floyd for his victory. Since Golovkin’s loss to Canelo, he’s not been heard of from boxing fans, and some think he’s in hiding from public eye. The fans draw comparisons between Golovkin and former super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux with the way he disappeared after his 6th round stoppage loss to Vasyl Lomachenko last November.
Golovkin’s poor show of sportsmanship in dashing out of the ring after his loss to Canelo should eliminate him as deserving a third fight. Canelo’s maturity and class in giving GGG a third fight is a kind thing for him to do to the down in his luck fighter, who came up short against a better fighter. Canelo is being kind by offering Golovkin a third fight. After the way Canelo beat GGG last month, there’s no point in fighting him in a trilogy fight, because he showed that he’s a much better fighter than him. The win for Canelo was so decisive over Triple G that it left no doubts in the minds of the boxing fans who the better fighter is. Frankly, Canelo would be smart to wash his hands with GGG, and move on and face new blood. Canelo has other mountains to climb, and he doesn’t need to go over old ground by fighting GGG in a trilogy fight. The result of a second fight between the two fighters will likely see Golovkin asking for a fourth fight, and it’ll just continue on in this seemingly never-ending pattern until the boxing public says, ‘Enough with the Canelo-GGG rematches.’ It’s forlorn at this point to envision a third Canelo vs. GGG fight. Canelo has already shown in the two fightss with Golovkin that he’s the better fighter, and it’s likely only going to get more obvious with each fight between them. Golovkin is getting older while Canelo is only now entering his prime.
Mayweather is expected to be back inside the ring in 2019 against either Manny Pacquiao or UFC star Khabib Nurmagomedov. Those are the fighters that Mayweather has talked of wanting to fight. Canelo isn’t on Mayweather’s radar screen, and he’s not expected to be. It would be too hard for Mayweather to fight Canelo with the way that he’s fighting now. Mayweather has lost his hand speed due to age, inactivity and living a life of leisure. Facing a fighter like Canelo at this point in Mayweather’s career would be a shock to his system, making it clear that it’s not a good idea for old, rich fighters to return to the ring. Mayweather hasn’t had a serious fight since his match against Pacquiao in 2015, and even that match was tainted because the Filipino star fought with an injured shoulder.
“If he wants to return and have fights, he should return and fight me,” Canelo said about Mayweather. “It would be tough for him but I know that he wouldn’t want to take that risk.”
Mayweather doesn’t fancy the fight with Canelo, and likely no amount of money will change that. Mayweather has a select group of fighters that he feels comfortable facing, and Canelo is clearly not among that group. It’s a waste of time for Canelo to wish for a fight against Mayweather, since he’s at the point of his career where he’s just looking to scrape together fights against popular MMA fighters that don’t know how to box, and an old 40-year-old Pacquiao. Mayweather isn’t interested in fighting any prime fighters from the boxing world. It would be disastrous for him to face Canelo.