Canelo Alvarez beats Golovkin says Brandon Rios

By Jim Dower: Brandon Rios is picking Saul “Canelo” Alvarez o defeat IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) on September 16 on HBO PPV. Rios says he likes Golovkin as a fighter, but he has to go with Canelo due to how good he looked in his last fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

Rios didn’t like the way that Golovkin fought in his close win over Danny Garcia on March 18 this year. Rios also didn’t think Golovkin looked good in his win over Kell Brook last year. Golovkin won both fights, but it wasn’t a shutout. I don’t know if Rios realizes how tough Brook is. He’s not someone that you can steamroll over. He’s a big welterweight, who clearly belongs at 154.

“I’ll stick with the roots with Canelo,” said Brandon Rios to Villianfy in picking Canelo to beat Golovkin. “Golovkin, he looked pretty bad when he fought Danny Jacobs. He didn’t look all that. When he fought his last fight – who was that? He didn’t look all that. I think Canelo looked really great against [Julio Cesar] Chavez, even though Chavez didn’t show up. Even if Chavez did show up, I think Canelo would have done great,” said Rios.

It’s impossible to predict a winner of the Canelo-Golovkin fight based on their recent opponents. Canelo’s fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was such a bad fight. Chavez Jr. was not good enough to get a good benchmark to analyze how good Canelo is. Canelo’s other recent fights came against Liam Smith and Amir Khan. Those guys aren’t in the same class as Golovkin’s last 2 fights against Danny Jacobs and Kell Brook. Golden Boy Promotions has done a good job of matching Canelo against fighters that weren’t in the same class as him so he could get easy wins. We’re going to see how good Canelo is when he gets inside the ring with Golovkin on September 16.

In fairness to Golovkin, Canelo would have struggled against Daniel Jacobs and Kell Brook as well. We saw how Canelo struggled against Amir Khan last year. A lot of boxing fans forget that Khan appeared to be ahead of Canelo four rounds to one at the time Canelo scored a knockout in the 6th round. If Khan was able to dominate Canelo, then you can bet that Brook would have done the same thing.

Rios wasn’t speaking very clearly during the interview. I’m hoping he’s OK. He didn’t sound well. It’s no secret that Rios has taken a lot of punishment during his 13-year pro career. Hopefully, he’ll focus on his defense in the Herrera fight instead of him just slugging it out.

Rios (33-3-1, 24 KOs) is launching his comeback to boxing this Sunday on June 11 against Aaron Herrera (32-6-1, 21 KOs) on Premier Boxing Champions on FS1 and Fox Deportes. This is a tough fight for Rios, because he looked so bad in his last performance against Tim Bradley. A fighter like Herrera would have knocked Rios out as well if it had been him in the ring with him rather than Bradley.

“My goal is to win one more title or to, and then I’m done,” said Rios.

Anything is possible in boxing. If Rios is in the right place at the right time, he could win a world title at 147 or 154. What Rios has going against him accomplishing that goal is the excellent champions that are current holding down titles at welterweight and junior middleweight.

If Rios is going to win a world title in either of those divisions, he’s going to need to do it the hard way by beating the likes of Keith Thurman, Manny Pacquiao, Errol Spence, Jermell Charlo, Jarrett Hurd, Erislandy Lara or Demetrius Andrade.

Canelo Alvarez is the highest paid Mexican athlete in the world

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is the best paid boxer in the world, according to Forbes. Canelo brought in more than $28 million recently for 2017. At this time, the 26-year-old Canelo is 43 in the world in terms of the best paid athletes worldwide. In 2016, Canelo made $21.5 million. Canelo is making more money than the highly popular International Boxing Federation/World Boxing Association heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, who is a big pay-per-view attraction in the UK at this time.

Joshua is a little older than Canelo at 27, but he might wind up having a longer career as a PPV star due to his 6’6” size. The 5’9” Canelo is going to have to find success the hard way now that he’s moved up to 160 after years of fighting at 154 and 155. Joshua made $22 million in earnings in 2017, which puts him at 89 on the list for the highest paid athletes.

Wladimir Klitschko made $21.5 million and is ranked 98 out of the 100 highest paid athletes. Canelo also gets endorsement money from Tecate, Under Armor and Everlast. If Canelo learns English in the future, he could get endorsements from U.S companies as well. However, that will also require that Canelo continue to find success in boxing. He needs to beat Golovkin on September 16, and look good in doing so.

Canelo will also need to show that he can beat the other top fighters at 160 like Jermall Charlo, Danny Jacobs and Billy Joe Saunders. It’s no good if Canelo beats Golovkin, but then turns around and loses his next fight to Charlo or Jacobs, if he even fights any of them.

Canelo’s recent fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on May 6 brought in over 1 million buys. That was the first time during Canelo’s pro career that he was able to bring in more than 1 million buys with him as the A-side fighter. It was the first time that a fight brought in at least 1 million buys since Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao pulled in 4.6 million buys in 2015.

Canelo is the highest paid Mexican athlete. Below him is Los Angeles Dodgers baseball player Adrian Gonzalez, who made $21.4 million. At the top of the highest paid athletes list is Cristiano Ronaldo. who made $93 million. The next highest paid athlete is basketball player LeBron James with him making $86.2 million.