By Sean Jones: Gennady Golovkin says he doesn’t recognize Saul Canelo Alvarez as having beaten him in their rematch on September 15 last year at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. GGG says he won BOTh fights against the popular Mexican star. For the record, Canelo won the rematch last September by a 12 round majority decision by the scores 115-113, 115-113, and 114-114.
The boxing media saw Golovkin winning the fight, as they did in the first Canelo-GGG fight, which took place at the same venue at the T-Mobile Arena. That fight was scored a 12 round draw. The boxing public felt Golovkin deserved the win by 116-112 score.
“First of all, I didn’t feel like I lost those fights. The judges decision doesn’t necessarily effect me, because I feel like I won those two fights,” Golovkin said in taking at last Monday’s news conference in New York City about his two controversial fights against Canelo Alvarez that took place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. “So, I don’t see myself as a contender or a beginner again. There’s more opportunities in boxing and fighting, and I’m happy about it,” GGG said.
Canelo fought better in the second fight with Golovkin, but he tired out in the second half of the fight. In the first five rounds, a bulked up Canelo looked impressive, but he got tired, and was out-boxed by Golovkin in the last six to seven rounds. If one counts the rounds, it appeared that Golovkin had won between six and seven of the rounds in the rematch. Two of the Nevada judges didn’t see it that way, as they scored it for Canelo.
The overwhelming opinions by the boxing world is Golovkin won the first Canelo vs. GGG fight, and the second one was a draw. Right now, Golovkin is up 1-0-1 against Canelo. The judges that worked those two Las Vegas fights have largely been ignored by the public due to their scoring being so off from what the fans saw of those fights. One of the reasons why Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler want to make sure the third fight with Canelo takes place in a different venue is because of the controversy. They both want the third fight with Alvarez, if there is one, to take place in New York.
There are going to be problems trying to make a third fight between Canelo and GGG. Canelo has already said that Golovkin will need a world title for him to see it an interesting enough fight him to face him for the trilogy match. Additionally, if Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions insist on the third fight with Golovkin taking place once again in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena, it could create a huge stalemate where DAZN might need to step in and settle it. For Canelo to insist on the third fight with Golovkin needing to take place at the same venue as the first two matches between them, it’ll look like he’s dependent on that venue for him to win. Canelo doesn’t see it the way many boxing fans view it. They think Canelo only wants to fight in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile, because he’s had scoring that worked for him
WBA/WBC middleweight champion Canelo (51-1-2, 35 KOs) has fought once since his questionable win over GGG in defeating WBA World super middleweight champion Rocky Fielding last December. Canelo will be facing IBF champion Daniel Jacobs (35-2, 29 KOs) in less than 2 weeks from now on May 4 on DAZN at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. This the same venue where Canelo was involved in two controversial fights with GGG.
Triple G will be fighting in two months from now in taking on unbeaten Canadian Steve Rolls (19-0, 10 KOs) on June 8 in his first fight on DAZN at Madison Square Garden in New York. The fight is scheduled for 12 rounds. A lot of boxing fans are upset at Golovkin’s choice of opponent, as they preferred that he face a quality fighter or at least someone that they’d heard of before. Rolls is ranked #9 by the IBF, but he’s not cut his teeth yet against world class opposition. He’s a contender, but a shaky one due to his weak resume, which is littered with journeyman level opposition from top to bottom. The fans wanted to see Golovkin take on someone that could give him a good fight like Rob Brant, Hassan N’Dam, Jermall Charlo, Demetrius Andrade, Sergey Derevyanchenko or Jack Culcay.
The fighters that were mentioned as in the running for Golovkin’s June 8 fight were N’Dam and Kamil Szeremeta. The 35-year-old Rolls came out of nowhere to be selected. DAZN agreeing to let Golovkin fight Rolls suggests that they’re on board with him getting a confidence booster for his first fight of his new six-fight contract with their company. But once Golovkin gets the fight with Rolls out of his way, it’s likely that he’ll take on nothing but quality opponents for his next five fights with DAZN. For the the company to bring in the subscribers, they need Golovkin and Canelo to take on the best. Obviously, Rolls is not the best, but neither was Canelo’s last opponent Rocky Fielding. For all intents and purposes, Rolls and Fielding were/are throwaway fights or gimmes.