Golden Boy Promotions flagship star Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) might as well give up on the idea of hi being able to knockout IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs), because it WILL NOT be happening, says Golovkin’s longtime trainer Abel Sanchez. He just wants Canelo to know that ahead of time so he won’t waste too much time hoping he can be the first fighter to put a dent in Triple G’s chin when the two of them fight each other on September 16.
Sanchez’s reasons for believing that the younger 26-year-old Canelo will fail at knocking out Golovkin is because the Kazakhstan fighter had 400 amateur fights and 37 fights as a pro, and no one has ever hurt him or even knocked him down. As Sanchez pointed out this week, Canelo couldn’t knock Miguel Cotto and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. That means won’t be able to do the job when he gets inside the ring with GGG.
“If you could not hurt Chavez and Cotto, you will not be able to hurt Gennady Golovkin, who has 400 fights, and they’ve never hurt him,” said Abel Sanchez to ESPN Deportes. ”It’s good they think they can stop him because that means he’ll have the balls to stop and fight him,” said Sanchez.
For Canelo to try and hurt Golovkin, he’s going to need to stop and punch with him. That’s a dangerous thing to do. Canelo might be able to get away with punching with Golovkin for a short period of time, but if he does it long term, he’s going to get hurt.
Canelo is going to probably try and box Triple G on September 16 instead of brawl with him. It depends though. Canelo is one of those type of fighters that has a temper, and when he get hit, he tries to come back immediately to payback his opponents with power shots. Canelo is drunk on success right now because in part he’s been matched against so many old, flawed and small fighters. Canelo has had a lot of punching bag put in the ring with him by his promoters at Golden Boy. This has enabled Canelo to tee off the over-matched fodder.
Look at the guys that Canelo has fought recently: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Liam Smith, Amir Khan, Miguel Cotto and James Kirkland. At first glance, the average boxing fans might think, ‘Hey, I know those guys. They’re pretty good fighters.’ Those are good but not among the best in their respective divisions. Khan is a welterweight, and he’s not capable of winning a world title in that I’m not even sure if Khan could win a world title at 140 at this point.
Khan had no business a much bigger fighter like Canelo. Kirkland and Chavez Jr. are done. Those
guys are not going to major players in boxing. Chavez Jr. is kind of fulfilling the same role that Kirkland was serving a couple of years ago in being an opponent for Canelo but not a treat. Liam Smith was arguably a paper champion.
”GGG is going to be very strong. Canelo is going to want to box but I feel that Golovkin will have a lot for Canelo, and he will win,” said Sanchez. “If not he knocks him out in the later rounds. What should be noted is that Golovkin take it as a Mexican and Canelo has a definite style, we saw on Saturday, it will be a long fight,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez has wanted this fight for Golovkin against Canelo for a long, long time. Now that it’s here, he’s pretty excited about it, because this is the fight that will give Golovkin recognition if he’s able to bet Canelo in an impressive manner. If Golovkin knockouts Canelo, it’s going to vault the Kazakhstan fighter to the top of the boxing world, and maybe even the pound for pound ranking. That will be up to Ring Magazine to decide if they want to give Golovkin the No.1 spot for beating Canelo. I have a feeling that Canelo will receive the No.1 spot with the Ring pound-for-pound ratings, but I’m not so sure if Golovkin will be able to get the top spot for beating Canelo. Let’s just say I’ll be pleasantly surprised if Golovkin gets the No.1 position.