This fight has been two years in the making, and it’s finally happening tomorrow.
I feel that this is the most important fight of the year in terms of having two opponents who are both rather high on the top ten pound-for-pound list face each other. Most would consider Andre Ward or Lomachenko to be at the top of the pound-for-pound list, but a decisive win by Canelo or GGG will move them into the top three.
Gennady ”GGG” Golovkin
Gennady Golovkin is the undefeated kingpin of the middleweight division. At 37-0 with 33 KO’s, no one has been able to get past Golovkin, which has created a situation wherein his reputation as a destructive force left many opponents unwilling to face him.
His past two fights have been the most competitive of his career,...
and they were also against the most skilled opponents on his resume. Canelo will be by far the biggest step up in competition for GGG, and this fight in particular has been about two years in the making.
The history of the negotiations for this fight is already well documented, but all I will add to it is that it’s obvious Golden Boy had a specific strategy of stretching the time out for this fight. The point was to let Golovkin get a little older and hopefully a little slower. At 35 years of age, Golovkin’s best years are already likely behind him, so De La Hoya wanted to make sure his man would have the better chance of winning by delaying the fight as much as possible.
The strategy will likely yield more money for the event, but Canelo’s reputation has surely been damaged after he so strongly proclaimed that “Mexicans don’t F@$% around”, followed by abandoning his new belt and thus the chance to fight Golovkin then. Canelo is a warrior, I don’t think he was ever afraid of Golovkin. Canelo fought a near-prime Floyd Mayweather when he was only 23 years old, why exactly would he be afraid of Golovkin a couple of years later?
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez
The superstar of Mexican boxing, Canelo Alvarez is undoubtedly the top boxer from Mexico and probably close to the top 5 P4P rankings currently. His record is 49-1-1 with 34 KOs, and he has captured world titles in both the 154 and 160 lbs divisions and only at 27 years old.
His notable wins are against top fighters such as Miguel Cotto, Erislandy Lara, Amir Khan, and Shane Mosley. Most recently he pitched a shutout against the timid Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in a Mexico vs Mexico rivalry. Canelo’s style is definitely of the most fan-friendly, as he is one of the best combination punchers and counter punchers in the sport today.
He doesn’t fight in the Chavez Sr, Mexican-style, he starts at a slower pace and eventually adjusts and turns up the heat on his opponents. He’s shown himself to be a great finisher with several highlight reel KOs including his bouts with Amir Khan, James Kirkland, and Liam Walsh.
My Prediction
This is an extremely close bout for me, but I have to go with Canelo right now.
Those favoring Golovkin assume that his power and strength will be enough to rough up Canelo like he’s never seen before, but I don’t see it going down that way. Canelo might be not considered a slick, defensive boxer but his defense is actually underrated. He doesn’t use his feet for defense very much, but his head movement is solid and he has a keen awareness of punches coming his way. Canelo isn’t a defensive wizard like Mayweather or James Toney, but he can comfortably fight off the ropes without getting hurt, and can counter punch as effectively as anyone in the sport at the moment.
People assume Golovkin will overpower Canelo on the inside but I actually think his best shot is to stick and move at first. Canelo simply fights better against punchers than he does against boxers/movers. The more of a boxer the opponent, the worse Canelo looks such as the fights against Mayweather, Lara, Trout, Khan, and Cotto. All were effective when they used lateral movement and the jab. Golovkin is of course known as an aggressive style of puncher who comes forward and looks to land big bombs on the inside. This has been his style as a professional, but he certainly knows how to box a bit on the outside from his extended amateur career.
People rarely mention the fact that Golovkin was a very accomplished amateur boxer, winning the 2003 world championships, capturing a silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games, as well as defeating all of the top Cubans in his weight class around that time period. He ended his amateur career with a record of over 350 fights with less than 10 losses. You simply can’t attain an amateur career like that without having solid boxing skills. He will have to put those to use as best he can in order to beat Canelo
When all's said and done, Gennady Golovkin’s biggest career mistake might just be that he turned professional far too late. I doubt he had full control of this at the time, but it doesn’t seem to make much sense for him to remain an amateur after the 2004 Olympic Games. If he had turned pro immediately after the 2004 games, he would have had an extra 2 years as a professional, and probably would have been a world champion sooner, thus able to get fights against better fighters sooner as well.
There is probably no point in thinking about what he should have done in retrospect though, the only thing that counts is that this fight is finally happening now. I think this fight deserves all the hype that Mayweather vs McGregor got, so hopefully you all will be tuning to see a legitimate, high-level boxing contest between two of the best operators in the sport!
Pics:
Instagram via instagram.com/gggboxing/
giphy
HBO via giphy.com/gifs/alvarez-canelo-xUNda5rNFHU1U0o5uE
HBO via usatftw.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/xeh0fiq-imgur.gif?w=1000
via instagram.com/gggboxing/
Sources:
http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/348759
http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/356831