Golovkin turns 39 today, will Canelo ever fight him again?

By Boxing News - 04/08/2021 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Middleweight champion Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin turned 39-years-old today, and it’s starting to look doubtful that Canelo Alvarez will give him the trilogy match that he and the boxing world wants to see.

Some boxing fans believe that Golovkin has been too dialed in and focused on getting the trilogy match with Canelo, and he’s not been able to regain the career momentum that he had before.

Canelo might not face GGG again

At this point, it seems obvious that Canelo WON’T fight Golovkin again, and if he does, it won’t be until he’s showing clear signs of deterioration in his game.

Canelo recently mentioned the possibility of fighting Golovkin in December if he’s successful in unifying the 168-lb division against Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant this year.

Those are paper champions that Canelo is facing to try and embellish his resume. Facing those guys also gives Canelo a foxhole to hide in to justify why he doesn’t have to fight Golovkin, David Benavidez, or Jermall Charlo.

It’s safe to say that Canelo would want no part of trying to unify if the current champions at 168 were David Benavidez, Jermall Charlo, Dimitry Bivol, or Artur Beterbiev.

Image: Golovkin turns 39 today, will Canelo ever fight him again?

Some fans believe Canelo is an opportunist by focusing on trying to become the undisputed 168-lb champion in 2021 because the champions Saunders and Plant are utterly beatable.

Given promoter Eddie Hearn and trainer Eddy Reynoso’s talk of wanting to take Canelo to Japan in December, it’s almost certain that he won’t be fighting Golovkin in that location.

The obvious opponent for Canelo in December is WBA secondary middleweight champion Ryota Murata, who hasn’t fought in two years. If Golovkin gets his trilogy match with Canelo, it’ll be in 2022 because the Mexican star will need him at that point.

U.S fans won’t want to see Canelo fight Murata, but it’ll play out big in Japan, which is why he’ll take the fight.

Murata is arguably a HUGE step down in talent from the weak champions Saunders and Plant, but he’s popular in Japan. This would be a business fight for Canelo.

If you’re DAZN, you’re probably not going to be jumping for joy to see Canelo choosing to fight Murata in December, as it’s another fighter that is coming off a 2-year break without fighting.

It’s the same situation that we saw recently with Canelo fighting Avni Yildirim, a fighter that had been out of the ring for two years since 2019. Murata isn’t as bad as Yildirim, but he’s also a deeply flawed fighter, as we saw in his losses to Hassan Ndam and Rob Brant.

With Canelo jamming down the throats of fans’ fights against the opposition, the boxing public has no interest in seeing him fight since 2019; they’re going to want to see him take risks with his career in 2022.

Canelo likely won’t dare try and unify the 160 or 175-lb divisions because talented fighters hold belts in those weight classes that would likely beat him.

That’s why it’s Golovkin will have a good chance of getting a fight with Canelo in 2022.

GGG hasn’t helped himself

Golovkin wants the third fight with Canelo, but the Mexican star seems to have been greatly affected by the second fight.

Since the second fight with GGG in 2018, Canelo has stopped taking risky fights and has been taking soft opposition in his last five fights.

It’s got to be frustrating for DAZN because the fans want to see Canelo fight Golovkin again, as well as David Benavidez, Jermall Charlo, Demetrius Andrade, Jermell Charlo, Artur Beterbiev, and Dimitry Bivol.

At 39, Golovkin isn’t expected to continue fighting for too much longer before he hangs up his gloves. He fought just once in 2020, beating his IBF mandatory Kamil Szeremeta by a seventh-round knockout.

Even though the International Boxing Federation hadn’t ordered Golovkin to make his mandatory defense against Szeremeta, he took it anyway.

You can connect the dots as to why Golovkin took that fight rather than a more risky unification match against WBC 160-lb champion Jermall Charlo, WBO belt-holder Demetrius Andrade, or a rematch with Sergiy Derevyanchenko.

The way that Golovkin looked against Szeremeta last December, the chances are that he would lose to all three of those fighters.

Although Golovkin can still punch, he’s slowed down, and his stamina doesn’t appear to be the same as it once was.

Image: Golovkin turns 39 today, will Canelo ever fight him again?

Golovkin suffered his lone career defeat by a questionable 12 round majority decision to Canelo three years ago in September 2018 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

That was the fight in which Canelo looked great for the first five rounds but then gassed out in the sixth round and outworked by GGG in the last seven rounds.

Due to the controversy over Canelo’s win and his previously questionable draw from the first fight with GGG in 2017, boxing fans clamored for a third fight.

Instead of Canelo giving Golovkin the trilogy that he, DAZN, and the boxing world have been asking for, the Mexican star has faced other opposition that fans WEREN’T asking for.

Replacing Abel Sanchez = A bad move for GGG

With virtually no social media presence, Golovkin lost the only thing that he had going for him in terms of a mouthpiece to the outside world when he replaced trainer, Abel Sanchez.

Without Sanchez, Golovkin has no one is talking for him to the media, and it’s been like a complete blackout of news about his career since 2019.

Sanchez’s speaking ability was unrivaled, and Golovkin didn’t have anyone to replace what he was doing for him.

Since Sanchez has been replaced, Golovkin hasn’t looked like the same fighter, and in terms of public relations, he’s seemingly become the invisible man. That’s not what you want to be if you’re trying to get a trilogy match with Canelo.

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It’s probably too late now for Golovkin to go back to Sanchez, and I don’t think he would do that anyway. It likely hurt his career by replacing Sanchez.

Golovkin hasn’t said who he wants to fight this year. Now that he’s no longer with trainer Sanchez, it’s rare that there are any updates on his career.

You can argue that it was a mistake for GGG to replace Sanchez, as he was someone that helped keep fan interest in his career with the contact interviews he was giving.

Now that Johnathan Banks has replaced Sanchez, it’s rare that fans hear anything about Golovkin. That’s not good for him, and he’s not been staying active enough or facing quality opposition lately.