By Sean Jones: Gennadiy Golovkin bit back at Canelo Alvarez this week in reacting to the Mexican star saying a trilogy match between them is personal for him because of the things he said about him 4 years ago.
Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) was surprised at this delayed reaction from the Mexican star Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs), wondering why it took him all these years to finally do something about his anger.
Instead of setting up a trilogy match with GGG in the last four years, Canelo has quietly been stewing over the things that the Kazahstan fighter said about him in 2018.
What this suggests to some boxing fans is that Canelo lacked the confidence to fight Golovkin again after being given a dubious 12 round majority decision in their rematch in September 2018.
That fight came after Canelo’s dodgy 12 round draw against GGG in their first fight in 2017, which fans once again thought Golovkin won.
The four-year delay from Canelo before making the trilogy match with Golovkin is viewed by some as a move for the Mexican star to increase his chances of winning by aging him before making the match.
Golovkin was 36 when he fought Canelo the last time in 2018, and he’ll be 40 when/or if they fight on September 17th.
By waiting this long before fighting Golovkin again, Canelo has set it up to where he won’t get the full credit for a win should he beat him.
“Yeah,” said Canelo when asked if it’s still ‘personal’ for him. “He talk a lot of s***, he talk a lot of things, but we’re going to see,” said Canelo earlier this month shortly after signing a two-fight deal with Matchroom Boxing & DAZN to face Bivol and Golovkin in 2022.
Canelo is failing to mention the things that Golovkin said about him in the last that angered him, but it’s obvious what he said that made it personal.
Golovkin was upset at finding out that Canelo had tested positive for the banned PED clenbuterol in March 2018, and naturally he sounded off about it.
“I’ll be honest with you. If he believes it was something I said and that it was personal, where has he been all these years? Three or four years already?” Golovkin said on The Ariel Helwani Show.
“Whatever has been said was tied to those scandals, and he was the cause of those scandals,” said Golovkin about Canelo’s positive test. “There were arguments and proof. It’s not me, it’s the entire world.”
In hindsight, Canelo would have been better off saying it’s NOT personal for him in fighting Golovkin again.
Golovkin still needs to beat Ryota Murata on April 9th for him to get the Canelo fight on September 17th. That might be a tough fight for Golovkin if he’s deteriorated due to aging in the last 16 months since his lasts fight.
