De La Hoya: Canelo is going to stand his ground against GGG

By Sean Jones: Oscar De La Hoya says Saul Canelo Alvarez is going to stand his going to stand and punch with Gennady Golovkin in their rematch this time around instead of using movement to escape his pressure like he did last time they fought in September 2017. De La Hoya is trying to pump life into the rematch by telling the boxing fans that Canelo is going to come out on fire on September 15.

We don’t know how much interest the boxing fans will have in the rematch after the controversy of the previous fight, as well as Canelo’s two positive tests for clenbuterol. Ever since the news came out about Canelo’s two positive tests for PEDs, some fans have been saying they won’t bother purchasing the rematch. Canelo has made things worse by choosing not to speak with Golovkin during the build-up.

If Canelo doesn’t help promote the fight, it’s going to make things awfully tough to drum up interest. GGG can’t promote the rematch alone. The fans have to believe that the judges are going to do a better job of scoring the fight this time around, because if they don’t believe that the fight will be scored fairly, then they won’t order it on HBO PPV.

Canelo is angry at GGG and he wants to knock him out, says De La Hoya. Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) will be counting on Alvarez slugging with him because he wants to knock him out this time to keep the Nevada judges from taking away another win from him.

Canelo disappointed a lot of boxing fans by choosing to move a lot to limit what GGG could do on offense. It worked to some extent, but Golovkin still outworked Canelo and looked like he wanted it more. The movement wound up hurting Canelo, as he gave away a lot of important rounds in the fight, keeping him from winning. The fight was scored a 12 round draw, but Golovkin won it in the eyes of the fans. That’s the important thing.

“The fans, they want to see a great fight,” De La Hoya said to Yahoo Sports News. ”This time around, Canelo is going to stand his ground and fight him. I believe we’re going to see a knockout this time.”

If Canelo is going to stand and trade power shots, his corner had better be ready to throw in the towel if Golovkin badly hurts him and has him defenseless. I’m sure Golden Boy and Canelo’s trainers will want to save him for another day. There’s no point in Canelo’s trainers leaving him out there to soak up punishment if he’s unable to handle GGG’s firepower in the rematch.

It sounds more like a marketing ploy by De La Hoya in saying that Canelo is going to come out swinging against GGG for the rematch because he didn’t do that in the first fight. There are a lot people who have no interest in purchasing the rematch after the way the judges scored the first fight a draw. When the boxing fans lose confidence in the judging for the fight, they stop purchasing fights on PPV. We saw that with the Andre Ward vs. Sergey Kovalev fight. Ward won a controversial 12 round decision in a fight that the boxing fans that he should have lost. In the rematch, the interest was not there from the boxing fans, who chose not to purchase the fight on HBO PPV.

It would be a tremendous surprise if Canelo chooses to punch with Golovkin because at no time during their previous fight that Alvarez was able to fight GGG for a full three minutes. Canelo was doing well in the first minute of each round, but after that, he would turn red in the face and spend the last two

minutes running. Unfortunately, I don’t think Canelo is blessed with the stamina to fight GGG hard enough for him to KO him unless he comes up with some major improvements.

Canelo’s conditioning limitations may keep him from having any chance of knocking out a fighter like GGG. Unless Canelo makes HUGE improvements in the stamina department, he’s going to be the one who will be knocked out, not Golovkin.

Golovkin and Canelo are facing each other on September 15 on HBO pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Golovkin and Canelo recently finished putting together a 55-45 purse split in favor or Alvarez. Golovkin was ready to walk away from the negotiations if he didn’t get 45 percent split. Golovkin is angry at Canelo for him testing positive for the performance enhancing substance clenbuterol last February, costing him a big payday.

”Obviously, the second time around is going to be different,” De La Hoya said. “Canelo is going to stand his ground, push him back and try to knock him out. I’m telling you, Canelo is right now so angry at what’s been taking place. He’s angry at Golovkin. Oh, he’s angry at Golovkin. There is real animosity there,”

I don’t think it’s possible for Canelo to win based on anger. He’ll only be able to sustain his anger for a short period of time before he’s forced to tone it down and try and box with intelligence. As much as Golovkin has been talking bad about Canelo, he’s not going to fight better because of anger. The only things GGG can do in the rematch is apply more pressure, and make sure he stays close so Canelo can’t run from him like he did last time.

We don’t know what Canelo is going to do in the rematch. If Canelo did take PEDS last time they fought, will he be able to fight at the same level in the rematch? That’s what some people are asking. If Canelo wasn’t natural last time, then he could have problems in the rematch if his stamina and power isn’t as good as it was in the first fight. Clenbuterol is a performance enhancing substance that is supposed to improve the stamina for fighters. Will Canelo have the same ability as he did last time? What happens if Canelo is 40 percent weaker with less stamina? Can he hang against GGG the second time around?