By Sean Jones: Eddie Hearn is sounding the warning bells ahead of Canelo Alvarez’s just announced trilogy fight against Gennadiy Golovkin on September 17th.
The Matchroom Boxing promoter Hearn is great at rebuilding fighters, but he’s not going to be able to do much for Canelo if he can’t cut the mustard against the 40-year-old Golovkin. He’s not the Al Davis of boxing.
Hearn is worried that if Canelo gets beaten by Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs), it would be his second consecutive loss. He wouldn’t have the handy excuse to explain away the defeat like last time WBA 175-lb champion Dmitry Bivol soundly beat him.
If Canelo can’t handle this level of competition, there’s not much Hearn can do for the 31-year-old Mexican star.
A second straight loss for Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) against GGG would result in Hearn needing to pull him back to the level of fighters he’s been padding his record with for the last three years.
Canelo losing to Golovkin on September 17th would wreck the plans for a rematch against Bivol or a fight next year against David Benavidez or Jermall Charlo.
Throwing Canelo in with Benavidez or Bivol off the back of a loss to Golovkin would be like feeding appetizers to a pack of hungry sharks in the pacific.
Canelo cannot afford to lose to Golovkin or win another controversial decision that makes him look like the Nevada judges are protecting him.
“The mirage of Canelo being this unbeatable fighter doesn’t exist; the reality is coming off. Two losses almost put your career in the balance,” promoter Eddie Hearn said to The DAZN Boxing Show.
Losing to Golovkin wouldn’t wreck Canelo’s career, but it would signal his days as an elite fighter are over. It would be silly at that point for DAZN to continue to ask U.S boxing fans to purchase Canelo’s fights on pay-per-view.
They’re not going to want to purchase Canelo’s fights on PPV with him coming off consecutive defeats and having four questionable decisions in his past.
You can’t blame Hearn for wanting Canelo to fight the trilogy match with Canelo next rather than Bivol. Getting thrashed by Bivol a second time would put Canelo’s career on skidrow.
If Canelo were to lose to Bivol a second time, you couldn’t sell a Canelo-Golovkin III fight on PPV because it would resemble an old timer’s level fight between two badly washed-up guys.
“We know that Canelo went up to 175, it was a big ask, but he was expected to win that fight,” Hearn continued.
“He has to win this fight; if he loses to GGG on September 17th, where do you go from there?
“Back-to-back defeats against two different fighters, this time with almost no excuse.
“The toughest thing for Canelo in this fight is to bounce back from that defeat; he was devastated to lose to Bivol,” said Hearn.
