By Robert Segal: Eddie Hearn thinks Canelo Alvarez can go a long way toward recapturing his #1 pound-for-pound spot in the sport by stopping Gennadiy Golovkin this Saturday.
As Hearn says, Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) wants to end the 40-year-old Golovkin’s career in their trilogy fight this Saturday, September 17th, on DAZN pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The way that Golovkin is talking, Canelo could end his career by just beating him by a decision, as GGG sounds like he’s at the end and may retire if he loses.
If Golovkin wins, the chance for another big payday against Canelo in a fourth fight would be too hard for him to resist taking. That would be Canelo’s second consecutive loss, and he’d want revenge to try to redeem himself.
A victory for Golovkin would make an interesting story, as few boxing fans are giving him any shot at getting the victory against the 32-year-old Canelo.
But when you look at how tired out and one-paced Canelo looked in his recent loss to Dmitry Bivol on May 7th, you can’t rule out the possibility of a victory for Golovkin.
If Golovkin is a quick study, he should have no problems copying the style of fighting that Bivol showed and replicating that on Saturday against Canelo.
The problem with Golovkin is he’s shown no ability to adapt in his two fights against Canelo. Golovkin fought the same way in both fights, and didn’t learn from the first fight what works and doesn’t work against Canelo.
Bivol was smart and figured out from watching the two Canelo-Golovkin fights how to defeat Canelo, and he used that approach to perfection last May to defeat him by a 12 round decision.
“Both guys are desperate to win, and you forget because of the rivalries that it’s for the undisputed super middleweight championship,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing Social about this Saturday night’s trilogy fight between 168-lb undisputed champion Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin.
“Not a lot [different about this fight than the two previous Canelo vs. Golovkin fights]. The same fighters, granite chins, and both can punch. Both are incredibly tough, and both are incredibly gifted.
“I think there’s going to be a lot more aggression in this fight. I think Gennadiy Golovkin feels in his mind, ‘I’m rolling every dice there is to roll. I’m giving every punch of my soul in this fight to try and win this fight.’
“Canelo Alvarez, at some point, wants to stop Gennadiy Golovkin. He wants to end his career, in his words. So both guys are not going to take a step backwards.
“I think you’re going to see a very aggressive fight, I think you’re going to see a very brutal fight, and I think you’re going to see guys trading up in the fight. I think at 168; it’s going to really suit Gennadiy Golvokin.
“He’s been making 160 for 15 or 16 years. I think he’s going to be incredibly durable at the weight. He has a granite chin anyway, but I think both guys are going to soak up a lot of punishment in this fight.
“I don’t think so because he’s a very determined character,” said Hearn when asked if Canelo’s recent loss to Dmitry Bivol would be on his mind. “You can always use the weight excuse at 175, but he lost. When he came back from the Mayweather defeat.
“His team was saying that he [Canelo] came back with a different spite in the [Alfredo] Angulo fight. He has that spite again. I said to him, ‘You look ready,’ and he said, ‘More than ready.’ His neck is like that.
“I’ve seen the way he’s trained in this camp. He’s given it everything. He wants to come back and bounce back. He’s a very proud man. The defeat to Bivol made people question that he was the great that we’d made him, that we’ve sort of put him on a pedestal.
“He wants to be pound-for-pound #1. Pound-for-pound king is his moniker, and really, he lost that when he lost to Bivol. He wants to bounce back and show the world that he’s the pound-for-pound.
“By stopping Gennadiy Golovkin, that would go a long way to reclaiming that position. I love Gennadiy Golovkin as well, so I don’t want to make a prediction.
“I don’t think it’ll go 12 rounds because the fight, I think, will have too much intensity and too much brutality to see these guys soak it up this time for 12 rounds. I think it’s going to be a thriller,” said Hearn.
“G is just a competitive guy, and this is just business to him,” said Golovkins trainer Johnathon Banks to Fight Hub TV. “Once the bell rings, whatever happens, happens, as long as he puts his best foot forward.
“Clearly, yes, he cares about winning the fight, but he cares about performing at the highest level and putting his best foot forward to win the fight. He’s going to do everything he can to win the fight, but what’s really going to matter to him is how those people look at him at home.
“It should have because you put your whole life into something,” said Banks about Golovvkin being bothered about his loss to Canelo. “This is his adjustment that he’s making, and this is his final time. Let’s see what we can make happen.
“I learned a long time ago, when you’re dealing with fighters, you work one fight at a time. I don’t talk about the previous fight. I don’t care if he’s 25 years old. I’m not talking about what’s next. I’m talking about what’s now.
“What’s next will be next. Right now, he’s in the fight of his life. So on Sunday, me and him will talk about it,” said Banks about whether this will be Golovkin’s last fight.
“What Banks didn’t say is that if Golovkin wins, a fourth fight against Canelo is almost a certainty. For Canelo, it’s arguably in his best interest to lose because if he gets beaten, he’ll have two lucrative rematches to take back to back against Dmitry Bivol and Golovkin.
