By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin have agreed to terms for a trilogy match on September 12 on DAZN at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Lance Pugmire @TheAthleticBOX has broken the news on the Canelo-Golovkin III fight agreed on for the financial terms. This is the fight that all of the boxing world has been waiting to see for the last 2 years, and finally, it’s almost here.
Canelo vs. Billy Joe Saunders is still on for June, but don’t be surprised if that fight gets canceled. The Mexican star Canelo can’t use up all of 2020 trying to get the fight with Saunders out of the way. For all intents and purposes, the Saunders fight is a glorified a tune-up for Canelo to get him ready for Golovkin, and he doesn’t need it. Poor Saunders has been waiting for a fight against Canelo for what seem like forever, and now that he’s about to get it, the fight could be wiped out by the coronavirus.
Call it cruel fate but that’s how life goes. It won’t be the end of the world for Saunders if he doesn’t get the fight with Canelo. If Saunders doesn’t get the match in 2020 with Canelo, then there’s always 2021 or 2022. It would in Saunders’s best interest to start fighting good opposition because he hasn’t fought a talented opponent since his narrow win over Andy Lee in 2015.
It’s important for Canelo to fight Golovkin in 2020
This is a good move for Canelo because he needs to fight Golovkin in 2020, on account of his advancing age. Golovkin will be turning 38 in April, and it’s gotten to the point where he’s starting to break down with injuries. What makes it even crucial that Canelo fight Golovkin this year is the fact that if he waits much longer, the Kazakhstan fighter could lose to someone else.
Fans already believe that GGG was given a gift decision in his last fight against Sergiy Derevyanchenko last October at Madison Square Garden in New York. Derevyanchenko did a better job-fighting Golovkin than Canelo did in their two fights, and yet he came out the loser. Golovkin was made to look old by Derevyanchenko, and he was hurt multiple times during the 12 round contest.
If Canelo waits too much longer before fighting Golovkin again, he won’t receive any credit from boxing fans. They’ll say, ‘Alvarez waited until Golovkin got old before fighting him again,’ which is what they’ve been saying.
Golovkin wanted to fight Canelo when he was 31 and 32 but didn’t get a chance to fight until he was 35. GGG then had to wait a year until he was 36 before he got a rematch against Canelo after their first fight in 2017, a fight in which boxing fans think Golovkin was robbed.
Saunders could lose out on Canelo fight
WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) still has a desire to battle WBO champ Billy Joe Saunders (29-0, 14 KOs) in a unification fight in June. However, if that fight needs to postponed from that date, then it could result in Canelo opting to cancel that fight and move straight into the Golovkin trilogy match on September 12, according to Pugmire.
It would be a predictable move on Canelo’s part to cancel the Saunders fight if the postponement date is extended beyond June. They were already supposed to fight on May 2, but the fight was moved to June out of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. Had they stuck it out with the May 2 date, there’s a good chance the fight wouldn’t have been allowed to take place on that date.
Even the June date for the Canelo vs. Saunders fight is highly suspect. The last two pandemics involving lethal viruses have stayed around for well over a year. Examples of that are 1918 Spanish Flu [35 months] and 2009/2010 Swine Flu [16 months]. So if Canelo, 29, doesn’t his entire 2020 year to consist of only a fight against Saunders, then he’s better off dumping that albatross-level fight, and focusing on the one that boxing fans want to see in Golovkin.
AT&T Stadium is where second Canelo-GGG fight should have taken place
The AT&T Stadium in Arlington is arguably where the second Canelo-Golovkin fight should have taken place in 2018, given the controversy over the scoring from their first fight in September 2017 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. That was a fight in which boxing fans saw Golovkin winning, but the odd scoring gave Canelo a draw.
Instead of taking the rematch with Golovkin out of Nevada, Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions brought it right back to the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and ONCE AGAIN, the results were controversial with Alvarez being given a win. The boxing world saw the fight as a draw, but Canelo was given a win, which was tainted in the eyes of the world.
You have to wonder whether Golden Boy and Canelo were thinking clearly hen they decided to stage the second Golovkin fight in the same venue at the T-Mobile Arena as the first Canelo-GGG fight in 2017. By doing that, it gave boxing fans the impression that Canelo needs to fight in Las Vegas for him to win.
Golovkin needs to raise his game
For Golovkin to beat Canelo, he’s got to raise his game from what we saw in his last fight against Derevyanchenko and his 2 previous fights against the Mexican star. GGG can’t let Canelo back him up as he did in their second fight, and like he did against Derevyanchenko. Golovkin has got go come forward, and not let Canelo get inside on him. Triple G can’t match Canelo’s inside fighting ability, so he’ll need to stay at medium range, and look to hurt him with jabs and power shots.
In the second fight with Canelo, Golovkin started off too slowly, and Alvarez build up a big lead on him. Although Golovkin did a nice job of coming back in the second half of the contest, he gave too many early rounds to earn the decision.
It might be a good idea for Golovkin to get a new trainer that can help him with this fight, given that his current trainer Johnathon Banks made an impact on his game.
