Canelo: I want to make it clear I’m better than GGG

Boxingnewsa24.com

By Dan Ambrose: On September 16, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez says he wants to make it clear to the boxing world that he’s better than Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. Canelo doesn’t want the fight to be a close one, because he doesn’t want a second or third fight with him. He wants to dominate the way he’s been doing lately against guys like Amir Khan, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Liam Smith. Canelo hasn’t been involved in a close fight in the last 3 years since his 12 round split decision win over Erislandy Lara in 2014.

Canelo has a lot to prove when he faces Triple G on September 16 on HBO PPV from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

That was a fight that arguably could have gone to Lara. Canelo landed only 31 head shots in the entire fight. The scoring seemed to be slanted in Canelo’s favor. Canelo has won 5 consecutive one-sided fights since then against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Liam Smith, Amir Khan, Miguel Cotto, and James Kirkland. The competition hasn’t been great, but Canelo has done what you’re supposed to do when fighting over-matched opposition, he’s won easily.

It’s important for the 26-year-old Canelo to prove that he’s superior to the 35-year-old Triple G, as he’s expected to carry the sport of boxing on his back. Canelo has a lot of years left in the sport. He’s not going to carry the sport on his back if he can’t beat Golovkin. Canelo would be just another fighter if gets knocked out by GGG or beaten by a decision. Golovkin isn’t going to be around for too much longer.

Canelo has to take his scalp while he’s still fighting so that it can validate his career. A loss for the red-headed Mexican star Canelo against Golovkin would prove to a lot of his critics that he’s just popular among his own fan base, but he’s not a guy that is legitimate. What’s kept Canelo from being seen as legitimate is the match-making that’s been done for him by his promoters at Golden Boy. They haven’t matched Canelo against Golovkin until now and they chose not to put him in with Danny Jacobs, Demetrius Andrade, David Lemieux, Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo, and Jarrett Hurd.

“That’s what I want; I want to make it clear that I’m better than him,” Canelo said to ringtv.com. “I want to make it very clear – no controversy, nothing – I’m better than him and there’s no need for another fight. I’m ready to fight. It’s coming,” said Canelo.

One of the problems that Canelo has going into this fight with Golovkin is the lack adequate preparation. Canelo hasn’t faced the really tough opponents that he’s needed to for him to be ready for a fighter of this caliber in Golovkin. When you’re getting ready to fight Golovkin, you don’t want to be fighting Amir Khan, Liam Smith and definitely not Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Those guys you fight when you’re getting ready to face a fringe contender at 154 or 160.

You don’t fight Khan and Chavez Jr. if you’re focus is on preparing for Golovkin. That’s doing thing backwards. Canelo should have fought higher class of fighters to prepare himself for Golovkin so that he doesn’t get embarrassed by the Kazakhstan fighter.

These are the fighters that Canelo SHOULD have fought to get ready for Triple G:

– Jermall Charlo

– Danny Jacobs

– Jermell Charlo

– Demetrius Andrade

– David Lemieux

– Jarrett Hurd

– Erickson Lubin

– Ryota Murata

– Tureano Johnson

– Curtis Stevens

– Sergey Derevyanchenko

– Luis Arias

– Willie Monroe Jr.

These are the best fighters in the 154 and 160 pound weight class. I don’t consider Miguel Cotto as being in the same class as the Charlo brothers or Demetrius Andrade at 154. It’s nice that Canelo beat Cotto, but it’s totally meaningless when it comes to preparing for someone as big and power as the 5’10 ½” Golovkin.

When you’re trying to get ready for Golovkin, you don’t fight the 5’7” Cotto, and you definitely don’t fight Chavez J. You got to stick with fighting only the best at 154 and 160.

“I don’t think so,” said Canelo when asked by the boxing media at a roundtable whether Golovkin intentionally let himself take shots against Danny Jacobs and Kell Brook in order to increase his business side. “I don’t believe it. I don’t buy into that. But if he says so, I hope he tries that with me,” said Canelo.

I happen to believe that Golovkin took it easy on Daniel Jacobs and Kell Brook. I don’t think Golovkin went all out in either of those fights. It looks to me like Golovkin fought at half speed in order to make himself look vulnerable so that Golden Boy Promotions would finally make the fight with him.

You have to remember that when Golovkin was looking invincible in knocking everyone out, Golden Boy wouldn’t let him get anywhere near Canelo. Where was Golden Boy when Golovkin was destroying Willie Monroe Jr., Dominic Wade, Daniel Geale, and Matthew Macklin? They were nowhere in sight. It was only after Triple G looked vulnerable against Jacobs and Brook that Golden Boy started to show interest in making the fight.

There’s a very good chance that Golovkin will put his chin on the line against Canelo in order to get the knockout. I don’t think he’s going to do it for business purposes obviously, because there’s no one beyond Canelo that will give him a big payday right now. But in order for Golovkin to get a knockout and turn his fight into a “drama show” on September 16, he’s going to need to get in the pocket with Canelo and make himself vulnerable. Canelo will likely land his counter left hook, but he’s going to get hit back hard by Golovkin. If it’s a back and forth war, I think that favors Golovkin. Canelo can’t afford to get in a war with Golovkin, because it’s too dangerous.

“It’s more a promotional thing,” said Canelo in talking about what he feels during his face offs with GGG. “We do it for promotion, but I do feel adrenalin. I do feel ready to fight; the fights coming. I’m ready to fight,” said Canelo.

In the New York press tour this week, moments after his face off with Golovkin, Canelo threw some body shots into the air while facing the crowd. It looked like Canelo was amped up from the face off with Golovkin, and he perhaps wanted to try and use some primitive intimidation tactics. The face offs are part of the promotional side of fights.

Some fighters try and gain a mental edge during the face offs by staring for a long period of time, talking to their opponent, and looking to stand close to scare them. Then you have fighters like Canelo, who throws punches into the air immediately after the face off is done. The tactic that Canelo is using is to try and intimidate Golovkin by getting him worried about getting hit with body shots. I think it’s a useless ploy by Canelo, because Golovkin is likely going to soften him up from the outside with jabs before he starts going for power shots.

“I’m more confident now, I have more experience,” Canelo said in talking about what’s changed in him since his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. “That fight motivated me, and I think that more than anything, instead of deterring me, it motivated me to become a more complete fighter.”

It’s hard to say whether Canelo has gotten better or worse since the Mayweather fight. You can only determine whether Canelo has improved if he’d been fighting good opposition. I’m talking REALLY good opposition, but he hasn’t done that. Canelo has been fighting the beatable guys at 147, 154 and 160. If Canelo wanted to fight a welterweight, why did he fight Amir Khan? That was a weak move because there are better fighters than Khan. If Canelo wanted to fight a junior middleweight, then why did he fight Liam Smith? Canelo could have fought Jermall Charlo, Jermell Charlo or Demetrius Andrade at 154. Why did Canelo fight Miguel Cotto at middleweight instead of Golovkin or Danny Jacobs?