By Sean Jones: Gennadiy Golovkin says it’s not personal for him going into his third fight with Canelo Alvarez on September 17th.
Despite Canelo testing positive for the banned substance clenbuterol years ago and having been given a controversial 12 round draw in the first fight with Golovkin and an equally questionable victory in the second, GGG says he doesn’t hold any animosity towards him.
Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) will be looking to even the score against the Mexican star in their trilogy match on September 17th on DAZN pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Interestingly enough, that’s the same venue Golovkin and Canelo fought during the first two fights together. Given the questionable scoring in those two contests, it’s unclear why Canelo wanted to take it back to the T-Mobile Arena.
You can argue that Canelo should have opted for a different venue, even if it were in the same city.
If there’s another questionable decision that goes Canelo’s way, some boxing fans will point fingers, especially after the bizarre 115-113 x 3 scores that were handed in for Alvarez’s last fight against Dmitry Bivol at the same venue.
Promoter Eddie Hearn believes Golovkin could be stronger for this fight due to the contest taking place at 168 instead of 160.
In Golovkin’s last two fights, he’s looked drained in making weight at 160, and it was pretty clear that he needed to move up to 168 to make it easier on himself.
“Gennadiy, you’re among the top tier fighters and seem the least emotional. You always seem to have the same demeanor all the time,” said Ken Rideout to Teddy Atlas’ The Fight.
“Even when you’re talking to Canelo, who I get the sense, you really don’t like, and he seems to be really offended whenever you bring up his sanctioning for doping, which he was convicted of.
“It surprises me that he was so upset because he was sanctioned by a third party, not you. How personal is it for you, and do you genuinely dislike him like I think you do?” said Rideout.
“It’s not personal. When things are personal for you, you try to compare yourself to your opponent. You try to think who’s better. You try to prove something to yourself.
“To me, it’s just another fight, albeit with a prominent boxer and a very interesting boxer. It’s going to be an interesting fight, but again, nothing personal. Let’s take my opponent against Dmitry Bivol. There was nothing personal in that fight. It was just boxing.
“The same here for me. It’s just business, just boxing. I don’t see any grounds for going into personal about it. It’s just not worth it. The way he’s [Canelo] been behaving during the last four years, I don’t want to descend to his level.
“I don’t want to go down there and take it up as something personal. That would be just unprofessional,” said Golovkin.
“For what it’s worth, I respect the way you conduct yourself and credit to you for not being lured into the trash talk,” said Rideout. “I always enjoy the pre-fights with you because it’s all business, and it seems very obvious at all the press conferences and weigh-ins.”
“If you are unable to talk boxing and communicate with your opponent without calling him names, without using obscenities or trash talk as you say, dirty words, it’s not worth communicating with such an opponent.
“We have a saying that can be translated verbatim. A bee would not be able to explain to a fly that honey is better than s***. It’s just not worth trying to do that,” said Golovkin.
“That’s a simple one,” said Teddy Atlas. “I think in any language, that translates pretty directly and clearly. I would like to ask Gennadiy since Ken touched on it, is there any testing in this camp for PEDS for VADA or any of the agencies?”
“Of course, there’s testing, and I’ll speak for myself and my camp. I’ve been doing this testing for God knows how many fights, and I don’t know how many times they did all the tests,” said Golovkin.
“There’s no dispute, arguments, or questions about Gennadiy Golovkin being clean at all,” said Atlas. “We’re not going to make a big deal about it, but we had to ask the question.
“There has been a dispute, as Ken properly brought up about Canelo, as far as him always being clean. I also wanted to ask, does he have a relationship?
“I’m just curious with Bivol at all, and if so, then my question would be, has he talked to him at all?” said Atlas.
“We don’t have a relationship. We don’t talk and discuss things,” said Golovkin about Bivol. “We, of course, know each other, and I remember when we had a phone call from his manager Vadim Kornilov.
“Dmitry was next to Vadim, and he reminded us that he met me back in 1997 during one of the boxing tournaments in his home country of Kyrgyzstan. So that’s how long we’ve known each other,” said Golovkin.
“I knew obviously that you knew each other from where you come from and obviously from your amateur background,” said Atlas.
“So that’s why I asked the question because I was just curious, having known each other and having that background of being familiar with each other.”
“I think the way Gennadiy is smiling, he knows him very well. I know they both train at Churchill as well, so I would imagine that they know each other very well,” said Rideout.
“No, of course, and that’s why I asked the question. Just if they had spoken, that’s all,” said Atlas about whether Golovkin knew Bivol well.
“Unfortunately not yet, but I hope we will be communicating more after my fight and his fight,” said Golovkin. “I know he’s moving to the United States; he’s moving his family. So, I think we will have some things to talk about.”
“One of those things I can tell you right now when he calls you after this fight to congratulate you for your win,” said Atlas.
“Right, that would be great. It’s always a pleasure to talk to people who actually know their profession, their trade and who are very interesting because of that,” said Golovkin.
“I just want to say to finish this unless Ken has something else. I just want to say thank you for taking your time in your camp, during your camp, to talk to us and come on our show,” said Atlas.
“I want to say the same thing to you. It’s always nice not just to talk to a great fighter and a great athlete but a great gentleman. A person that knows how to behave outside of the ring as he does inside the ring. Always behaving like a champion.
“Thank you, and thank you for all the fans and from all of us,” said Atlas.
“It is a great pleasure to talk to all of you guys. Thank you so much,” said Golovkin.
“Thank you for doing this,” said Rideout. “Thank you to Fred for arranging and all the fans out there. Thank you for being with us.
“Gennadiy, one of the things I like about you most is watching you come into the ring with that beautiful Kazakh robe. I’m going to talk to Fred about how he can get me one, too,” said Rideout.
“Thank you so much, guys. Anytime,” said Golovkin.
“Best of luck, Gennadiy,” said Atlas.
