By Sean Jones: Andre Ward says he was shocked that Canelo Alvarez failed to knock out the 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin in their fight last month on September 17th.
Ward feels that Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) should have been able to stop this older version of Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs) because he was there for a paycheck and had looked old for the last three years.
Golovkin looked every bit his 40 years, and, surprisingly, Canelo couldn’t knock him out with him looking like that. Ward didn’t touch on the fact that Canelo is beginning to show serious signs of deterioration, starting with his fight against Billy Joe Saunders in 2021.
If Ward wants to know why Canelo couldn’t KO Golovkin, it’s because he’s an old 33. This isn’t the same Canelo that fought Golovkin in 2018, and it’s not just his golf hobby that negatively impacts his game. Canelo has a lot of mileage on him from his many fights, and he’s also naturally aging the way people do.
“This time in the third fight with GGG, who, by the way again, is now 40 years old,” said Max Kellerman to ESPN about Canelo Alvarez’s recent win over Gennadiy Golovkin in their trilogy fight.
“He’s looked 40 for some time,” said Andre Ward about GGG.
Golovkin has looked 40 since his fight with Sergiy Derevyanchenko in 2019, and that was three years ago. He looked terrible against Derevyanchenko and poor against Steve Rolls as well as Ryota Murata.
“He has. Right around the time, he turned 4o, 38, 39,” said Kellerman. “He looked like he could still fight at the highest level when he fought Canelo the second time. I thought Canelo won the second fight.
“There were those who thought GGG did. Certainly, the majority thought GGG won the first fight, and so did I. Canelo left no doubts here [in the trilogy match with Golovkin].
“It was a dud of the fight compared to the first two, which were good action fights. What were your impressions of Canelo?” said Kellerman.
“I thought he should have stopped that version of Golovkin,” said Ward. “If Canelo is who he says he is, an all-time great, you got to take advantage of a fighter like that, who literally just showed up to get a check.”
Canelo couldn’t take advantage of Golovkin because he’s too old and depleted himself to have put him away.
When or if Canelo fights Dmitry Bivol next year, he’s going to get beaten even worse than he did in the first fight. Canelo is likely counting on Bivol getting beaten by Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez because that would save him another one-sided loss.
“The performance from Canelo was a little shocking,” said Ward. “I thought he would do a little bit more, but the performance from Golovkin was not shocking. I was shocked by the reaction and the response that people finally got the revelation that he’s looking old.
“He’s looked old for the last two to three years, and because he’s got the mantra of Mexican style, everybody excuses the fact that he takes way too many punches and way too much punishment. The response time and reaction wasn’t there,” Ward said about Golovkin.
“If you think about it, this is the biggest name, the only real name that Golovkin has on his record. No matter how you feel about it, that’s the truth,” said Ward.
“It is. For guys at middleweight and below,” said Kellerman about Golovkin. “He’s appeared for a while to not be worth the risk for the star fighters to fight at middleweight or below.”
“I don’t think he wanted to fight some of those fighters,” said Ward about Golovkin. “I’m not talking about me. There were certain guys that you and I know being at HBO that he wasn’t going to fight.”
“Canelo starts at junior middleweight and wins titles at junior middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight, moves up to light heavyweight and knocks out Kovalev,” said Kellerman. “He wasn’t the Kovalev that you fought, but he was still winning fights.
“Eventually, he loses to Bivol at light heavyweight, which to me, if you keep moving up in weight and you keep fighting the hardest guy at the weight, eventually you’re going to lose. I don’t hold that against him [Canelo].
“He just beat GGG. He still hasn’t fought [David] Benavidez, who I’d like to see that fight. He hasn’t fought either Charlo brother, let alone the bigger one, right? Where is Canelo’s legacy for you right now?” said Kellerman.
“It’s tricky, it’s complicated,” said Ward. “On the surface, he’s fought everybody; he’s done everything, he’s taken all the risks. If you know what you’re looking for and you look at some of the names he fought, he [Canelo] doesn’t have a lot of prime names on his resume.
“That being said, I think Canelo is a great talent. I think he’s had a great career, and, of course, he’s a Hall of Famer. There’s no doubt about that. But I think there’s a little bit more window dressing with his record than people recognize with his career.
“I think his team has done a phenomenal job. You got to give Oscar De La Hoya a lot of credit. He doesn’t get a lot of credit for co-signing Canelo earlier in his career and then also helping with the match-making.
“They know when to cause Canelo to fight certain guys and when to stay away. Benavidez is not going to happen right now. It’s not going to happen because it’s too dangerous,” said Ward.
“I think that’s a little unfair, and I’ll tell you why,” said Kellerman. “To fight a guy like Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara when Canelo did. If you’re the money man, you ain’t got to take those fights, especially against a Cuban southpaw who can box. That’s not a money fight.
“He took those fights. They were close, and he came out winning. By the way, I think they were justified. They were very close, and I thought he won both fights. Lara was especially very close.
“You don’t take those fights if you’re a ducking kind of guy. That’s the reason I thought he’d be the star to fight GGG,” said Kellerman.
“You do if you believe you can beat them,” said Ward.
“So, in other words, if he doesn’t believe,” said Kellerman.
“There’s no rush to fight Benavidez right now,” said Ward.
