Canelo softened up for Golovkin by Dmitry Bivol for Sept.17th

By Boxing News - 06/03/2022 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Gennadiy Golovkin will be getting a potentially softened-up Canelo Alvarez when the two meet on September 17th in their trilogy fight on DAZN PPV.

Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) is fresh off a one-sided shellacking at the hands of Dmitry Bivol on May 7th, but he’s going in what he believes is the path of least resistance in selecting 40-year-old Golovkin(42-1-1, 37 KOs) on September 17th.

In the eyes of boxing fans, Golovkin has already beaten Canelo twice, and if he can follow the blueprint created Bivol, he can hand the Mexican star his second straight defeat.

Golovkin can ruin Canelo

If Canelo loses to Golovkin, it’s fair to say that he would be mentally wrecked and ready for the scrap heap. It wouldn’t be fair at that point for Canelo to bother fighting Bivol again because it would be a forgone conclusion that he’d get schooled a second time by the superior fighter.

Bivol’s blueprint to beat Canelo:

1. Sustained combination punching

2. Movement

3. Tight guard

4. Fast pace

Golovkin still tough fight for Canelo

“He’s got the kind of style because he’s not afraid of Canelo. He’s going to back Canelo up, be first, he’s the bigger guy,” said Abel Sanchez to K.O. Artist Sports about Dmitry Bivol continuing to be a bad style match-up for Canelo.

“So whether it’s 168 or 175, it’s a difficult fight again for Canelo. Obviously, Bivol, he’s already beaten him, right?” said Sanchez when asked who is the biggest threat for Canelo.

“I still think Gennadiy, Benavidez, and Beterbiev are the toughest four fights, including Bivol [for Canelo],” said Sanchez.

The fighters that ex-trainer Abel Sanchez mentions would be a pure nightmare for Canelo, especially now that Bivol has created the blueprint on how to defeat him.

“This was the only way to go. If you don’t do the Golovkin fight now, who knows if it’s ever going to be there,” said Chris Mannix on his site, talking about Canelo vs. Golovkin III.

“Not only can Canelo lose again to Dmitry Bivol, but if you’re Golovkin and waiting around to May 2023, you could take a fight and lose, and he’ll be 41-years-old by May 2023, which makes it even more challenging for a fight like that.

“It’s just that everything pointed to this fight taking place. Look, there’s a chance the Dmitry Bivol fight will be even bigger if they push it to May of next year,” said Mannix.

Canelo taking the easier option

“Bivol, I don’t know what he does in his next fight. I don’t know if he does what Eddie Hearn is pushing for, which is to take on Joshua Buatsi,” Mannix continued.

“I don’t know if he responds to the nine million press releases about Gilberto Ramirez and his challenges of Dmitry Bivol or if he waits for the Artur Beterbiev vs. Joe Smith end in the kind of way that would allow the winner of that fight to take him on before the end of the years.

That’s probably the preferred option for Dmitry Bivol, but we’ll see how that goes. But if Dmitry Bivol can become undisputed at 175 and you go into next year with Canelo Alvarez-Bivol, Alvarez undisputed at 168, Bivol undisputed at 175, that’s massive. That is massive.

“It makes that rematch [between Canelo and Bivol] ten times bigger than what it was, and as much about how hardcore fans bellyache at seeing Canelo-Golovkin III, there are twice as many mainstream fans that have interest in it. There just are.

“Many boxing fans are the casual variety. They know Canel0-Golovkin III, they know that fight. I don’t know what the final pay-per-view numbers were for Canelo’s last fight [against Bivol]. This [Canelo vs. Golovkin] will probably do over a million, it just will.

“It’s a marketable fight, a big mainstream fight. Given that they made it in a timely manner and promoted it in the proper way, we’ll have a lot of buzz among casual boxing fans in the weeks and months to come.

“So this to me was a total no-brainer. Let me pivot to the fight [Canelo vs. GGG 3] itself. It will be contested at 168. Golovkin has not fought at a full-fledged 168-pounder. That in and of itself is remarkable.

“The guy has fought t middleweight since 2004 with the occasional dalliance above 160 pounds against Steve Rolls or something else? But this guy is going to move up to 168, could that benefit Gennadiy Golovkin in a fight like this?

“Golovkin has been softened up to the body for a number of years, beginning with the Sergiy Derevyanchenko fight a few years ago. You could even see in his last fight against Ryota Murata, he took some shots to the body shots that clearly affected that.

“I expect Canelo to have a game plan that attacks that early and often. The most likely outcome here is we see something decisive for the first time in this trilogy between these two guys.

“I agree that if Bivol fought Beterbiev or Smith, it would be a big risk. I wonder how much money that would be on the table for a fight against Beterbiev. Maybe not a lot.

“Certainly not as close as there would be for a Canelo fight, that’s for sure. As significant as a fight as Beterbiev vs. Bivol is, it’s unmarketable in the U.S. Hardcore boxing fans know these guys. Average boxing fans do not.

“It reminds me in some ways of Beterbiev vs. Gvozdyk, which took place in Philadelphia and had no fans in attendance. It’s hard to market that fight. Even Beterbiev vs. Smith, Joe is from Long Island, it’s taking place in the theater in MSG. Not in the big room at MSG.

“It speaks about how marketable that fight is. When I was at the Gilberto Ramirez show a couple of weeks ago, Golden Boy officials insisted that the WBA was going to mandate that Ramirez fight Bivol.

“They were going to threaten to take his belt if he didn’t. Now, I don’t think the WBA would do anything outside of its own interest,” said Mannix.

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