By Sean Jones: Gennadiy Golovkin is still understandably bitter about what many boxing fans perceive as a robbery in his first fight against Canelo Alvarez in 2017.
That was the fight in which Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) appeared to win a conclusive decision by at least an eight rounds to four margins against a tired & cautious Canelo.
Shockingly, two of the judges differed, with one [Adelaide Byrd] scoring it for Canelo 118-110 [10 rounds to 2] and the other [Don Trella], handing in a 114-114 score. The third judge had Golovkin narrowly winning 115-113.
The fight took place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is the same venue where this Saturday’s trilogy fight between Canelo and Golovkin will be staged at.
Golovkin was naturally fit to be tied over failing to get the victory over Canelo, as he felt he’d won without a doubt.
He was not surprisingly furious at the judge that scored it in Canelo’s favor 10-2, and he felt that she should have been punished for turning in such a poor score.
What made things even worse is a year later, in 2018, Canelo won a controversial 12 round majority decision over at the same venue in, the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and fans were almost as angry about it as they were about the oddball draw that was scored in the first fight.
In the second fight, Canelo started off strong in the first four rounds, landing hard body shots that backed Golovkin up. However, like in Canelo’s recent loss to Dmitry Bivol, he quickly gassed out after four rounds, and was eating jabs & power shots from Golovkin during the last eight rounds.
It was painfully obvious that Golovkin had done more than enough to deserve the victory, but at worse, the score could have been a draw.
“There was no fighter in the ring whose level of fighting was low or whose boxing IQ was low,” said Gennadiy Golovkin to DAZN’s ‘The Making of the Trilogy‘ about his first fight with Canelo Alvarez in 2017.
“I remember during the first rounds, I was more focused on my opponent’s tactics. They’re about working him out,” Golovkin continued. “I looked at his tactics and figured out what he was up to.
“We were counter-punching. Everything was clear after the first few rounds. He was more experienced than my previous opponents were. His boxing skills were at a high level.
“His speed, power, and youth are what made him different. I knew he was going to be counterattacking. He didn’t surprise me at all,” said Golovkin.
“When we got into the second part of the fight, Golovkin started to impose himself a little bit more,” said Gareth A Davies. “The power of the Kazakhstani’s punches suddenly tells. You can see it; you can feel it.
“You can see it; you can feel it in the arena. Canelo has suddenly been tilted by Golovkin. Canelo is on bike more, he’s circling more, and he’s not engaging quite so much. It’s not become Golovkin’s fight,” said Davies.
“The real fight started in the middle of the bout,” said Golovkin. “That’s when it became interesting. As the fight progressed, we started to go for it and got stronger and played our best hands,” Golovkin said.
“[Abel] Sanchez spotted that Canelo was going to work at the end of the rounds, and he wanted his man [Golovkin] to be busy throughout,” said Davies. “Don’t play the game of relaxing when you know you’ve won the round.
“Make sure you won the rounds. Don’t leave it in the hands of the judges. Take the fight yourself,” Davies said.
“When fighters have a relatively equal round, usually the one that dominates at the end wins the round,” said Golovkin. “When you land more punches during the whole round but don’t finish the last 10-15 seconds properly, then the judges give it to your opponent.”
“It was a very high-profile fight. Two high-profile fighters competing against each other,” said Golovkin about his first fight against Canelo. “So you pay for every mistake, but neither of us made any terrible mistakes.
“This was boxing at the highest level, boxing at it’s best, and I did everything to win. Even though I had all the belts, I still did everything to win,” said Golovkin.
“I remember that punch. I let it get through,” said Golovkin about a right hand that Canelo hit him with in round nine. “I don’t know what to call it. It wasn’t hard. It felt kind of like a slap, I guess, a sliding punch.
“Well, it didn’t do too much. You always try to end successfully,” said Golovkin about the championship rounds [10, 11 and 12]. “You’re giving it your maximum, and that’s why they turned out to be so spectacular because there’s more going on in these rounds.
“The championship rounds turned out to be very intense. We did everything to win,” said Golovkin. “We were giving it our all. I think we both showed that we were prepared to go the distance.
“We had the strength, the freshness, but there weren’t any chances. We didn’t make any mistakes to punish each other,” sid Gennadiy.
“As I was counting the point throughout the fight, I did it fairly and without bias,” said Max Golovkin, the brother of Gennadiy. “I was sure that we were leading by four or five rounds.”
“During the whole fight, I felt I was winning, that I was doing everything right, everything to win,” said Golovkin. “Even during the last rounds, I felt I was applying constant pressure, punching more and landing more accurate shots.
“My punches were more effective. I think I did a lot more to win,” said Golovkin.
“It all comes down to what the judges are looking at. If you like the pressure, then you’re scoring for Golovkin. If you like the movement and the combinations, then you’re scoring for Canelo,” said Gabe Rosado.
“I remember the feeling when the judges announced the draw,” said Golovkin. “I couldn’t believe that one of the judges could score it so badly [judge Adelaide Byrd’s 10-2 in Canelo’s favor] in favor of my opponent.
“How unfair can you be? How unfair to this sport? How can someone be so unbelievably inadequate and treat athletes in such a way? I think such actions should be punishable,” said Golovkin.
“What was Adelaide Byrd watching?” said Davies. “It’s one of the worst judging decisions in history.”
“I thought Golovkin won the fight,” said Max Fisher. “Watching it live, I had it 7 rounds to 5 for Gennadiy Golovkin.
“I thought he got robbed,” Macklin said about Golovkin. “He definitely won the fight. Canelo had great moments in the fight, but on a 12-round fight, on a 10-point must system, he lost at least seven.”
“A draw I can live with but the score of the fight that one-sided for Canelo was unfair to both fighters because that’s what fans are going to remember,” said Fischer.
“They’re going to forget how good the fight was and they’re going to focus on the negative, focus on the controversy. They’re going to focus on their own outrage.”
“I guess the fight didn’t work out the best for either of us,” said Golovkin. “I’m sure in this fight I did enough to win, and I’m not the only one convinced.”
