By Matt Lieberman: A bitter sounding Gennady Golovkin says Saul Canelo Alvarez is “horrible for boxing”, and he doesn’t want to deal with him. Although Golovkin (39-1-1, 35 KOs) does still want to fight the Golden Boy star Canelo (52-1-2, 35 KOs), he views him as a guy that has recently showed his “true face” with the way he backed out from fighting him on September 14.
DAZN wanted the fight, as did Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions. Golovkin thinks it looks bad with the way Canelo is airing his “dirty laundry” by criticizing his match-maker, promoters and his manager in public. GGG says he doesn’t want to get involved with that kind of person. At the same time, Golovkin still wants to fight Canelo if the fight if offered, since he sees it as a good “business” level fight for boxing.
Gennady Golovkin vs. Sergiy Derevyanchenko on October 5
Golovkin will be fighting for the vacant IBF middleweight title against Sergiy Derevyanchenko (13-1, 10 KOs) on October 5 on DAZN at Madison Square Garden in New York. If Golovkin is successful in that contest, he says he has a lot of great options for his next fight if Canelo doesn’t want to face him again.
Golovkin says Canelo was supposed to fight him in September
“Not a big surprise,” said GGG to Fighthub when asked if he was surprised that Saul Canelo Alvarez chose to fight Sergey Kovalev on November 2 rather than facing him in a trilogy fight on September 14. “We had a deal with DAZN on September 14th Mexican Independence Day. He said, ‘No.’ This is a surprise. Nobody understands why. Of course he wants to fight against Kovalev. He talks with him.
We had business for September 14th. He said, ‘No.’ It’s finished. I forgot him, and I went on my road, my generation. And I had a good experience the last couple of years. I know this guy. I know his promotion. Look right now, every-time bad situation. He said, ‘No,’ okay, because I know this guy. I don’t understand who supports this guy for business or anything. I have experience, and I have partner and relationship with DAZN,” said Golovkin.
GGG is unhappy with the way Saul Alvarez backed out from fighting him on September 14th after they were supposed to fight on DAZN. Golovkin admits he was “surprised” that Canelo didn’t go through with the fight, and he doesn’t understand that move. It was a move that didn’t help Canelo, because his next fight against Sergey Kovalev likely won’t be as big as the trilogy match with Golovkin.
GGG: It’s no problem if Canelo doesn’t want to fight
“It’s better if I have fight [with Canelo Alvarez],” said Golovkin. “If he’s not coming like last time [for September fight]. It’s no problem. I have a lot of guys, great champions, and I have a lot of options. Right now I work with great people, Eddie Hearn with corporations. Why not? I have a lot of good ideas for future.
“Right now I feel so strong. He knows. I’ve had a lot of sparring. If he says it’s better for him [to fight Sergey Kovalev], okay. If he doesn’t want what people want, if he doesn’t want fight with me like last. He knows we had good contract with DAZN, and good options for this September, last September. He doesn’t want. That’s okay.
“Nobody supports, nobody like fans like people from this business. He showed his face. He talks really bad about his promoter, his match-maker and his manager. I don’t want to touch these guys. It’s not for me. I told you my situation right now with DAZN. It’s good. If we have a fight, this is good for business, because this is business, crazy business. If he doesn’t like fight, not yet, okay. I forgot,” said Golovkin.
Canelo wants the WBO light heavyweight title to add to his collection of division belts. A victory for Canelo over Kovalev will make him a four division world champion. He feels that’ll help shape his legacy. However, Canelo will never match the 8 division world titles Manny Pacquiao won or the 6 division titles his promoter Oscar De La Hoya won during his career. Canelo is arguably putting his legacy in front of making sound business deals right now.
Derevyanchenko fight worries Golovkin
“There’s a lot at stake. This a little more scary,” said Golovkin about fight with Derevyanchenko. “I have a completely different boxing IQ [with new trainer Johnathon banks]. I show you October 5th. I’m not changing 100 percent, because it’s impossible to change 2-3 months completely. He brings a lot of ideas. I feel right now much better,” said Golovkin.
This could be a real banana skin for Golovkin in facing 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Derevyanchenko. This guy almost beat Daniel Jacobs last October in losing a 12 round split decision, and he’s easily one of the best fighters Golovkin will have faced during his career. Only 33, Derevyanchenko is a threat to Golovkin, because he’s got power, size, and he’s smart. This isn’t going to be an easy out for Golovkin. He could love if he’s not at 100% for the fight. He can’t afford to give away rounds against Derevyanchenko, because this guy could beat him by a decision. Derevyanchenko is coming off of a win over Jack Culcay last April in an International Boxing Federation middleweight title eliminator. He looked good in beating Culcay.
Canelo vs. Kovalev good for boxing says Gennady
“I don’t know,” said Golovkin when asked if Kovalev beat Canelo. “Two different guys. Kovalev is probably the same weight, but taller. Canelo, he feels very good for this weight, not like Kovalev. Yes and no for both. A lot of points from Kovalev’s side, and a lot of points for Canelo’s side. I agree this is so good for boxing fans. This is so interesting. I like this for Kovalev, because it’s so much money. This is good deal for him. So he’s got more bonuses for this fight. I like this fight because this really helps Sergey,” said Golovkin.
There’s surprisingly a lot of interest from the boxing world in Canelo’s next fight against Sergey Kovalev. Those two are facing each other on November 2 on DAZN at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada. While it’s clear that Kovalev isn’t the fighter that he used to be, the casual fans don’t care. They still are interested in this fight, because Canelo is moving up in weight two divisions to compete against a bigger guys at 175. This isn’t pay-per-view obviously, but it’s going to help DAZN bring in a lot of new subscriptions to their platform.
For hardcore boxing fans, they would have preferred that Canelo take on one of the other light heavyweight champions in the division like Artur Beterbiev, Oleksandr Gvozdyk or Dmitry Bivol. Canelo wisely opted for the beatable champion in Kovalev. Alvarez obviously wasn’t born yesterday. He knows his limitations.
GGG willing to fight at 168 if good business deal offered
“Right now, everybody asks me [about moving up to super middleweight],” said Golovkin. “I was ready 10 years ago. I stay at 160, and so many people don’t want to fight with me. So I got to 168 and 175, and nobody want. I’m not big guy. If I have big deal for business, you must my situation. Right now for me boxing is just business. All belts help for business, and all fights are just for business. If people have good idea for business, try,” said Golovkin.
There are four interesting fights for Golovkin at super middleweight against the following fighters:
- Callum Smith
- Billy Joe Saunders
- Caleb Plant
- David Benavidez
Taking a little training break for LA media day. pic.twitter.com/zPzTlq5ZVM
— Gennadiy Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) September 24, 2019
Golovkin still wants Canelo fight
No matter what Golovkin says about him viewing Canelo as bad for boxing, he still wants the third fight with him. But for the time being, Golovkin needs to forget about Canelo, and put his energy into fighting the best fighters want to see. The more that Golovkin talks about wanting to fight Canelo the less likely the fight will happen. Canelo can obviously sense Golovkin’s desperation, and that gives him the power to mess with him by not giving him the fight that he wants.
In an ideal world, Canelo would fight him, but he’s the face of boxing now. He calls the shots, and Golovkin can’t do anything about it other than have a successful career. The reason why Canelo wanted to fight Golovkin originally was because he was making huge noise with his career in knocking everyone out. Golovkin needs to doing the same thing by putting together a string of knockouts over good opposition if he wants a third fight with Canelo.