Canelo criticizes Golovkin

By Dan Ambrose: Last Monday, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) revisited the topic of Gennady “GGG” Golovkin’s last fight against former WBA World middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs in their fight from last March. Canelo said he thought Golovkin lost the fight by 1 to 2 points. It’s unclear why Canelo is still talking about Golovkin’s fight with Jacobs.

Canelo notes that the judges saw it differently than he did, but he still feels that Jacobs should have won. Canelo says Jacobs would have “easily” beaten GGG if he’d not fought cautiously in the first few rounds. Golovkin built up a lead in the first 6 rounds due in part to Jacobs fighting timidly during that part of the contest.

Canelo and Golovkin will be battling each other on September 16 on HBO pay-per-view from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Last Monday, June 19th, Canelo and Golovkin met in their press tour in London, England. This is part of their 3-city press tour. Today, Canelo-Golovkin will be meeting in New York for their second stop of their press tour at Madison Square Garden.

“I think Jacobs won. I gave him one or two points,” said Canelo to IFL TV in saying he thinks Danny Jacobs deserved the victory against Golovkin in their fight last March. “I thought he won. Obviously the judges had it different. You have to respect the judges. I think Jacobs was a little careful in the first few rounds. If he hadn’t done that, he would have easily won the fight,” said Canelo.

Golovkin beat Jacobs by a close 12 round unanimous decision. The judges spoke, and all 3 of them felt that Golovkin had done enough to deserve the victory. It’s difficult to make a case for Jacobs winning due to him getting knocked down and appearing to lose the first 6 rounds. If you do the basic math, if a fighter gets knocked down and loses the first 6 rounds, they usually lose the fight.

Canelo might have forgotten how passive Jacobs fought in the first part of the fight. Jacobs did start fighting back beginning in the 7th, but he was hurt in the 10th by GGG, and he was out-punched in the 12th. Golovkin won the fight 8 rounds to 4 with Boxing News 24’s scoring of the fight. The 4th round knockdown Triple G scored should have made the fight even more one-sided. Jacobs was lucky that the judges scored it closer than it really should have been, as I think it was one-sided than the final scores. The judges scored it 114-113, 115-112 and 115-112.

The real question you have to ask the 26-year-old Canelo is if he really thinks Danny Jacobs beat Golovkin, then why isn’t he fighting him on September 16th? Why isn’t Canelo telling his promoters at Golden Boy to match him against Jacobs? That would make sense, wouldn’t it? If Canelo believes Jacobs would have “easily” beaten Golovkin, he should be fighting him. I don’t understand Canelo’s reasoning.

I think it makes him look bad in fighting Golovkin if he thinks he should have lost the fight to Jacobs. If Canelo stood by his principals and fought Jacobs, he could justify it with the boxing media by telling them that he believes that Jacobs would have “easily” beaten Golovkin if he had fought in a more aggressive manner in the early part of the fight. I’m sure some of the media members would agree with Canelo and not tear him apart by saying he’s afraid of GGG. Unfortunately for Canelo, the boxing world thinks Golovkin beat Jacobs.

Canelo is on the margin with his opinion on the fight. But I like I said, if Canelo believes that Jacobs won, he’s got to stand by his believes and do the right thing by ignoring Golovkin and fighting Jacobs. That obviously isn’t going to happen. Canelo can always fight Jacobs in his next fight AFTER Golovkin. Somehow, I do think that’s going to happen either. My guess is Canelo will NEVER fight Jacobs during his career. I’d like to think Canelo will one day fight Jacobs, but I don’t see it happening. It hasn’t happened yet, and I don’t see it taking place in the future. Canelo never fought the Charlo brothers or Demetrius Andrade at 154. I see a number of fighters that Canelo isn’t interested in facing.

“Those type of fighters feel they have to do that to get some kind of recognition and be outspoken,” said Canelo about Billy Joe Saunders. “I think that will happen,” said Canelo in saying that he’ll fight Saunders for his WBO middleweight title after he beats Golovkin. “I’ll fight him and I’ll tie one hand behind my back. I’ve only watched him one or two rounds back when I was trying to fight him. I’ve never studied him,” said Canelo.

If Canelo beats Golovkin, Saunders is likely going to be his next opponent he faces unless he fights Golovkin in a rematch. Saunders has a couple things going for him that makes him a good target for Canelo. First off, Saunders has the WBO middleweight title. If Canelo wins the IBF, IBO, WBA and WBC belts off Golovkin, he would only need to capture the WBO belt in order to have all 4 world titles in his possession. It would increase Canelo’s star power if he were to hold all of the middleweight belts at one time. Even if Canelo quickly vacated the titles rather than defending them against Jermall Charlo and Danny Jacobs, it would still make Canelo look good that he’d won all 4 of the belts. The other thing that makes Saunders a tempting target for Canelo is he’s arguably an easy mark for him due to his lack of punching power and poor stamina. Canelo will likely have no problems beating Saunders. He’s not a threat to beating him like Jacobs and Charlo are.

“Everybody wants this fight,” said Golovkin about Canelo. “Right now this is a good fight for business, for fans and for everybody. I know him. He knows me a long time. It’s not just power and speed. It’s who the best is and who’s No.1 pound for pound. I like boxing. This is a tough fight for us. This fight is 50-50. Who’s first? After this fight, maybe we have rematch. This is the first fight for us. It’s huge. People that love boxing want to watch this fight,” said Golovkin.

Canelo-Golovkin is a great fight. I don’t think Golovkin honestly believes it’s a 50-50 fight though. I get the picture that GGG has already sized Canelo up and realized he can beat without any problems. I think Golovkin is just saying the fight if 50-50 just to sound like he’s not boasting. Makes Golovkin look better in the eyes of the boxing public if he takes the high road in the promotion of their fight, and he doesn’t talk too much trash. It gives the ‘good boy’ look if he doesn’t skewer Canelo by ripping him apart by pointing out his many flaws and his inflated ring record filled with a lot of fluff opponents.

“Right now my focus is on Canelo, not Billy Joe,” said Golovkin. “He talks too much. He’s a fighter. He’s not a promoter. Remember, he had a chance. I gave him June 10. He said. ‘no.’ Right now my focus is on Canelo I’m ready. My goal is all the belts in the middleweight division He knows I’m ready.” said Golovkin.

Saunders showed up at Monday’s Canelo-Golovkin press conference in London and tried to get them to agree to fight him next. Golovkin told Saunders that he talks too much, and that he needs to have his promoter contact Tom Loeffler if he wants to fight. Canelo could be heard whispering that he would beat Saunders with his eyes closed and one hand tied behind his back.

“With this type of fight, with the financial revenues it brings, I could easily see the fight happening 2 or 3 times, and it doesn’t mean it should happen immediately,” said Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler to IFL TV. “Billy Joe should definitely be in the mix,” said Loeffler.

It’s still too early to be talking about the rematches between Canelo and Golovkin. Loeffler and Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya are already talking about a trilogy between the two fighters. They should know that it rarely works that way. It’s a rare thing where you get a close enough and exciting enough fight between two big names for there to be a second fight. Even then, the second fight needs to be a competitive one for there to be a trilogy fight. De La Hoya was talking about a rematch between Canelo and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. before their May 6 fight. That match turned out to be a terrible contest with Chavez Jr. not throwing punches and losing badly. With the way the fight played out, there’s no chance of Canelo ever fighting Chavez Jr. again.

The boxing public wouldn’t be interested in a rematch between them. Loeffler should know that it’s premature to be talking rematch and trilogy fights between Canelo and Golovkin. The chances are high that Canelo loses badly enough to where there will never be a second fight between him and Triple G. De La Hoya isn’t going to want to put his golden goose Canelo in with Golovkin a second and a third time if he gets blasted apart in the first fight. Canelo can make huge money fighting lesser opposition like he’s been doing most of his career. Look at the guys that Canelo has been fighting lately: Chavez Jr., Liam Smith, Amir Khan, Miguel Cotto, James Kirkland and Alfredo Angulo. Those are not great fighters. We’re not seeing Canelo fight the Charlo brothers, Jacobs, GGG and Demetrius Andrade. How does Canelo NOT fight those guys? Canelo has been a money fighter for Golden Boy. That’s why I don’t see him being put back in with Golovkin if he loses to him.

“We’re going to do the best job we can promoting this fight,” said Loeffler. “I think the boxing fans realize this is the biggest boxing match. Certainly, Conor and Floyd have huge fan bases, and that kind of becomes a spectacle. But I think this event [Golovkin vs. Canelo] has a strong enough fan base with Triple G’s fans and Canelo’s fans and the huge response we’ve gotten, it’ll do well regardless of what happens before. That’s the fight Floyd wants to put together,” said Loeffler in talking about Mayweather’s decision to fight McGregor.

Loeffler doesn’t think that the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor promotion and fight results will hurt the Canelo-Golovkin fight interest from the boxing public. Loeffler notes that it could help make the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight a bitter even if the Mayweather and McGregor fight is an exciting one with a good ending, but he doesn’t think the outcome of that fight will hurt the Canelo fight. We’ll see if Loeffler is right about that.

“We tried to reach out to Floyd a couple of times to make a Triple G fight, but it wasn’t realistic because of the weight, even though Gennady would have come down to 154. It’s a big fight for him,” said Loeffler in talking about Mayweather. “It’s his 50th fight. I’m a huge fan of his [McGregor]. It’s a matter of whether he can translate that into a boxing ring. The boxing experts think the odds are stacked against him, just as it would if Floyd entered the octagon. It’s pretty much a forgone conclusion that Conor would submit Floyd. That’s the event. It’s a spectacle. I think both events should do every well. We saw what happened with the Pacquiao fight. That was bad for boxing, only in the sense that the fans, a lot of people had never fought pay-per-view, bought that event. They paid $100, and they were disappointed, and said, ‘I will never buy a pay-per-view again. So you definitely saw a hangover in pay-per-view. Floyd’s fight after that didn’t do a tenth,” said Loeffler in taking about Mayweather’s fight against Andre Berto in September 2015. The fight brought in poor PPV numbers compared to his previous fight against Pacquiao. “So you could definitely see there was some push back, because a lot of the pay-per-view fights after that [failed to bring in big numbers]. We just hope it’s an entertaining event,” said Loeffler about the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight. “I certainly think the boxing fans are looking forward to the fight, and like I said, I think both events will do really well,” said Loeffler.