Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin ripped into Saul Canelo Alvarez this week in calling him the dirtiest fighter he’s ever fought. Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) didn’t go into details of what he meant by saying that Canelo is the dirtiest fighter he’s ever fought, but it’s possible that he’s eluding to his two positive tests for the performance enhancing substance clenbuterol last February.
During their fight last September, Canelo would turn his back to Golovkin when he saw him throwing a shot to his body. Canelo would then look at the referee to see if he would warn Golovkin for hitting him in the back.
Canelo appeared to be intentionally turning his back to Golovkin when he saw him getting ready to hit him with a body shot. You can’t call that dirty fighting by Canelo, but obviously was a situation where he was gaming the system by tricking the referee to make him stop Golovkin from throwing body shots.
Golovkin says he wants to make sure there are no draws when he faces Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) in their rematch on September 15 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Golovkin
“Canelo is one of the dirtiest and most unpleasant opponents I’ve ever faced,” Golovkin said.
This was the first fight of Golovkin’s career in which he fought a pure runner. In his fights against Kell Brook and Daniel Jacobs, they both used a lot of movement, but they did a fair amount of fighting. They didn’t attempt to steal rounds by fighting hard in bursts in the first minute of the round and then running for the last two minutes. That’s what Canelo was doing each round.
”Just do my job and win the fight,” Golovkin said about his plan to beat Canelo Alvarez in rematch. ”I don’ have any problem. I don’t need to change anything. It’s their team that needs to change practically everything. You’ll see what happens on September 15. Everything will be clear.”
Golovkin is wrong about him not needing to change anything in the rematch with Alvarez. Golovkin clearly needs to do a better job of cutting off the ring, staying close, throwing more punches and above on not letting Canelo escape. That means Golovkin is going to have to be willing to get hit by Caneo because if he stays on the outside all night long, he’s going to pu the Nevada judges in a situation where they need to score rounds based on deciding whether they value Canelo’s occasional power shots landed over Golovkin’s head snapping jabs that he repeatedly lands.
”If you hear what they say, I appear not to be a boxer at all,” GGG said in response to Canelo’s comments about him lacking technical skills inside he ring. ”What’s interesting is why they didn’t win the fight the first time,” Golovkin said.
Golovkin’s boxing skill was high enough for him to have deserved the victory over Canelo in the eyes of the fans. Gennady might not have done enough to get the victory over Alvarez in the view of the Nevada State Athletic Commission assigned judges that worked the fight last September, but the neutral fans had Golovkin winning and that’s what’s more important. Golovkin showed more than enough skills to beat Canelo. What he didn’t do in the fight was pull the trigger on his shots enough of the time to make the fight totally one-sided. If Golovkin had thrown more punches, it would have been an easier fight. He looked like he was too worried about missing and getting countered by Canelo’s left hooks, which he was trying to land each time GGG would throw a shot.
”It’s tough to evaluate after a whole year, but what I remember and it didn’t surprise me is he wasn’t a heavy puncher,” Golovkin said about Canelo’s power. ”He wasn’t a heavy puncher.”
It’s been an entire years since Golovkin fought Canelo. With that much time that has elapsed, it’s going to be tough for either of them to remember their respective punching power.
Canelo landed a couple of good uppercuts in the later rounds that got Golovkin’s attention, but he wasn’t hurt. Canelo’s power was good when he was fresh at the start of each round, but he would gas out quickly and wind up slapping in the last two minutes and fifteen seconds of each round. Canelo’s stamina was terrible. Golovkin didn’t realize at the time that Canelo was tiring after throwing a few punches in the opening minute. If Golovkin had figured out that Caneo was gassing quickly, he would have went after him a lot more and did damage.
”I hope there’s not going to be any draws anymore,” Golovkin said. ”Somebody is going to win in this fight.”
Golovkin shouldn’t assume anything about the judges. This fight is Nevada once again, and it’s at the same venue as the first fight at the T-Mobile Arena. Canelo is the home fighter, as he’s fought in Las Vegas 11 times in his career compared to just 1 time for Golovkin. Canelo has an 11 to 1 advantage over Golovkin in fighting in Las Vegas. If you don’t think that matters then you need to think again. It does matter.
Canelo brings a lot of money to the city of Las Vegas each time he fights in that city, and he’s obviously going to continue to fight there after September 15 for the remainder of his career. In Golovkin’s case, he likes to fight in New York and Los Angeles. Golovkin will likely spend return to fighting in those cities because that’s where his loyal boxing fans turn out to see him fight.
”We have two different styles of boxing,” Golovkin said of Canelo. ”He probably thinks his style of boxing is called boxing. I have a completely different style of boxing. I hope for in this fight this style of boxing allows us to finish the fight prematurely,” Golovkin said.
Canelo was using the Mayweather style of fighting in his previous match with Golovkin. That style involves a lot of pot shots and movement. Golovkin will need to become more like Marcos Maidana and put major pressure on Canelo for him to cut off the ring on him to prevent him from running all night long because he’s likely going to be doing a lot of that on September 15.