By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez says he wasn’t impressed with Gennadiy Golovkin’s ninth-round knockout win over Ryota Murata earlier this month on April 9th in their 160-lb unification in Saitama, Japan.
Canelo could face Golovkin in a trilogy match in September if the Mexican star wins his fight next month against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) in May 7th.
The fight with Bivol is far from a sure-thing win for the 31-year-old Canelo, so there’s a high possibility that we WON’T see the trilogy between the Mexican star and Golovkin on September 17th.
If Canelo loses to Bivol, the September date would surely be a rematch against the unbeaten Russian. Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn hasn’t talked about how the scenario would workout in which Canelo loses to Bivol once or twice in a row.
Sean Jones is predicting Canelo will lose a 12-round unanimous decision to Bivol by a 116-112 score [8 rounds to 4] on May 7th and will be stuck needing to decide whether to push for a rematch.
One can speculate that if Canelo loses to Bivol in consecutive fights in 2022, the trilogy fight with Golovkin will be moved to 2023. Canelo would probably take a confidence-builder in December to get back to his winning ways rather than risk a third fight with Bivol.
“He did what he’s supposed to do, win by knockout. I’m not impressed, but he looked good; he looked strong. But I was never impressed, even before. I was never impressed about him,” said Canelo Alvarez to ESPN in reacting to Gennady Golovkin’s win over Ryota Murata on April 9th.
It’s difficult not to interpret Canelo’s negative comments about Golovkin as a sign of bitterness over his two controversial fights with him, both of which fans saw as victories for the Kazahstan fighter.
Golovkin should be the bitter one, as he would have made a lot of money if he had won both fights. You got to imagine that Golovkin would have made millions upon millions.
The 40-year-old Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) was coming off a 16-month layoff for the fight with WBA middleweight champion Murata (16-3, 13 KOs), and not surprisingly, he didn’t look overly sharp.
Golovkin’s power was still top-notch, but his stamina looked less than desirable, and he appeared to have lost a small amount of speed. The inactivity that Golovkin has had in the last four years has hurt his game, as he’s only fought four times since 2018 against these fighters:
- Steve Rolls
- Sergiy Derevyanchenko
- Kamil Szeremeta
- Ryota Murata
If Golovkin had taken more formidable opposition more frequently, his popularity would still be sky-high. Instead, he fought four tune-up level fighters, perhaps thinking Canelo would fight him again.
For whatever reason, Canelo had other ideas, choosing a bunch of paper champions, padding his record, and telling fans that he’s building his legacy.
If you look at the guys Canelo has been facing, it’s apparent that he’s not been building his legacy.
He’s been taking easy money fights against paper champions while steering around the dangerous guys like Golovkin, David Benavidez, David Morrell Jr, Artur Beterbiev, Joe Smith Jr, and Demetrius Andrade.
“That fight is going to be for all the people who want to see that fight again,” Alvarez said. “[It’s] special because people want to see that fight.”
“We’re talking about the Bivol fight. I need to win this fight, and then we’ll see.”
“Maybe he wants people to forget the first two fights because they’re too painful for him?” said Golovkin about Canelo.
Canelo’s opposition since 2018:
- Rocky Fielding
- Billy Joe Saunders
- Callum Smith
- Avni Yildirim
- Sergey Kovalev
- Caleb Plant
Bivol will be worlds better than those guys, which is why there’s an excellent chance that Canelo will lose to him next month.
