Canelo Alvarez gasses after 8 rounds, barely beats Gennadiy Golovkin

By Boxing News - 09/18/2022 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez’s chronically poor stamina reared its ugly head last night, resulting in him barely squeaking by with a 12 round unanimous decision victory over Gennadiy Golovkin in their trilogy fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

After the fight, Canelo blamed his gassing out due to him for not being able to train hard enough in camp because of his left-hand problem. It looked to me like Canelo simply gassed like he always does.

The only reason it took him until the eighth round is because Golovkin was fighting at a glacial pace, playing it safe on the outside. Canelo actually looked worse than he did in his previous fight against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol.

Golovkin looked like a fossil and much, much older than his chronological age of 40. There are no words. What happened to the guy in the last four years since he fought Canelo in 2018? Not only Golovkin lost much of his hair, but the aggressiveness that he once had is now entirely gone.

Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) should feel lucky because if Golovkin was the same fighter he was in 2017 and 2018, he would have blasted the shell of the Mexican star out. Canelo looked almost as old a Golovkin and so utterly feeble that it was beyond comprehension.

The reflexes and punch accuracy that Canelo once had during the zenith of his career is now totally gone. He looked like he was punching with his eyes closed, as he was missing the ancient-looking Golovkin repeatedly.

After this fight, Canelo needs to re-think the idea of fighting Dmitry Bivol because he stands no chance of beating the talented WBA 175-lb champion. If you’re Eddie Hearn, you need to sit Canelo down and talk him out of the notion of ever mixing it up with Bivol again.

Hearn needs to focus on steering Canelo towards strictly soft opposition to keep him from having his career immediately imploding once he starts fighting quality opposition.

The way Canelo is fighting now, there are a lot of contenders in the 168-lb division that’ll beat him. You can also throw in two or three middleweights that would defeat him as well. We’re talking guys like Chris Eubank Jr, Jermall Charlo, and Janibek Alimkhanuly. Those three would make easy work of the shell of Canelo.

“It’s hugely satisfying to win despite all the problems that I had,” said Canelo Alvarez at the post-fight press conference after beating Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin. “I wanted to get the KO, but it wouldn’t come because he’s a great fighter.

“I was able to show, and that’s why there are 12 rounds in a fight, so you could show who is best. I’m really happy with what I’ve done tonight. With my hand problems, I out-jabbed the best jabber in the world in Gennadiy Golovkin.

“I respect him as a fighter. As a person, I don’t know. I don’t want to put it at that level because I consider myself a good person. I say to him, ‘I’m glad to share the ring with you.

“We give the people three good fights.’ I’m glad to share the ring with him to have these three fights that are going to be in the history of boxing,” said Canelo.

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