Canelo: I can do more with Golovkin than Chavez Jr.

Boxingnews24.com

By Allan Fox: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) wasn’t allowed to showcase his boxing skills to the highest degree against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (50-3-1, 32 KOs) but he believes that Gennady “GGG” Golovkin will allow him to show everything in his arsenal. Canelo beat Chavez Jr. by an easy 12 round unanimous decision last Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Canelo will have a lot to work with as far as being able to throw his counter shots against the always aggressive Golovkin. This isn’t going to be a fight where Golovkin holds back with his punches when he gets inside the ring on September 16. Golovkin will let his hands go. Canelo typically does well against fighters that throw a lot of shots because it enables him to hit them with counters. If Golovkin chooses to jab most of the time, then it could be a problem for Canelo, because it prevents him from landing his counter punches.

That’s what Golovkin did in his toughest fights of his career in jabbing Danny Jacobs, Curtis Stevens and David Lemieux. All three of those fighters were jabbed most of the time by GGG. They thought he was going to go to war with them, but he surprised them by jabbing. Canelo will be ready for that from Golovkin. He might need to come up with a different plan to beat Canelo, because he’ll have 8 weeks to prepare for his jabbing.

Canelo won the fight by default due to Chavez Jr. not throwing many punches. Chavez Jr. had his reasons for not getting his shots off. He said that he was weak, and he didn’t want to get countered. Chavez Jr. being weak for the Canelo fight is understandable, considering that he had to drop a lot of weight to get down to 164.5 for the catchweight. It wasn’t just 3 ½ pounds extra that Chavez Jr. had to lose to go from 168 to 164.5 for the catchweight. Chavez Jr. was very heavy when he started training for the Canelo fight, and taking all that weight off left him very thin. He looked without power. When you compare how Chavez Jr. looked when he first started his training camp for the Canelo fight and how he looked on fight night, it was like looking at two different people. Chavez Jr. was fairly muscular when he started training camp. When he was done with the camp, he looked like a long distance marathon runner.

“I definitely believe I can do much more with Golovkin than I did with Chavez, a lot better,” Alvarez said to the latimes.com. “I said it once and I’ll say it again: The era of Canelo is now. What that means is I’m willing to fight the best, give the fans the best fights always. And that’s what I’m doing.”

Golovkin can argue that he can do more with Canelo than he could with his last opponent Danny Jacobs, who used movement all throughout their fight last March. Jacobs was boxing Golovkin until the last 3 rounds of the fight, when he began to slug a little. Jacobs was still very defensive, and fought like he didn’t want to get knocked out. Canelo won’t move nearly as much against Golovkin, and he likely won’t try and gain a bunch of weight to get an advantage over him like Jacobs did. Jacobs skipped International Boxing Federation’s weigh-in on the day of the fight.

Golovkin had to limit his fluid intake to make that weight, so it gave Jacobs another advantage over him. But with the tricks that Jacobs used to try and win, he still lost the fight. Canelo won’t try and bulk up as much as he can, because as we saw in the Chavez Jr. fight, he’s not any more powerful heavier than he is when he’s fighting in the 170s. If anything, it slows Canelo down for him to gain weight. He’s better off focusing on speed and quickness than he is at coming in heavy in the 180s.

“It’s a huge opportunity for Gennady to finally be involved in a fight like this,” said Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler said to the latimes.com. “The [financial] pie is so big, it wouldn’t make sense not to do it.”

There’s a lot of money to be made on the Canelo-Golovkin fight by both guys. The financial terms haven’t been disclosed to the boxing media, but suffice it to say, Canelo is getting the lion’s share of the revenue for the fight. There was talk a couple of months ago about Golovkin being offered a $15 million lump sum for the fight without the PPV upset. Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya said he was going to pull that offer off the table after news was leaked about Golovkin’s fight against Jacobs bringing in only 170,000 PPV buys on HBO.

It’s possible that Golovkin will be receiving a percentage split for the Canelo fight, but it might not leave him with more money than the $15 million flat fee offer that was initially made to him. De La Hoya is expecting the Canelo-Golovkin fight to be as big as or bigger than the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight. If that turns out to be reality, then there should be a great deal of money to be made off of the fight. Golovkin might not get the huge money unless he beats Canelo and fights him a second time in a rematch. That’s where GGG could rake in the dough.

According to the LA Times, De La Hoya was surprised how easy the negotiations were and how fast Golovkin and Loeffler said yes to the contract. They signed the contract last week. De La Hoya wanted to keep it a secret until they could unveil the fight to the boxing public after Canelo’s win over Chavez Jr. last Saturday. There was supposed to be a lot of excitement after the Canelo-Chavez Jr. fight due to the big Mexican clash between the two popular fighters. It didn’t work out that way. There was a lot of disappointment until Canelo invited Golovkin into the ring, and told HBO commentator Max Kellerman that he would be facing Golovkin next.

The Canelo-Golovkin fight has a number of suitors in terms of the venue for where it will be staged. Among the potential venues to show the fight is AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. It seats 100,000 fans. There’s also New York’s Madison Square Garden, and the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Having the Canelo-Golovkin fight at AT&T Stadium would work in Canelo’s favor, because he draws huge crowds in Texas. Canelo’s fight against Liam Smith last September pulled in over 51,000 boxing fans for turned out to be a one-sided fight.

Golovkin’s IBF middleweight title will be up for grabs for the Canelo fight, but as of now, he won’t have his WBC title available. Canelo seems to be unhappy with the World Boxing Council for taking his WBC middleweight title last year.