GGG robbed, but not of belts

By Bob Smith: First off, I must say, it was a great fight and all that it was billed to be in Saturday’s supremacy contest between middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight was ruled a 12-round draw. It is rare that boxing matches live up to expectations, but this one did. Another recent example of course was Anthony Joshua – Wladimir Klitschko.

Second, let’s give credit where credit is due:

#1 Canelo lasted 12 rounds against GGG. This is a big accomplishment as he is only the 2nd fighter to do this in the career of GGG. It is not one that should be underestimated either. He obviously did a lot of training for off the rope counters, and used that as his safety zone – GGG naturally was hesitant to get in too close against the ropes against Canelo because of his explosiveness and speed. Canelo also has tremendous power as well.

#2 Canelo fought well in the championship rounds. This also is a significant accomplishment, and one that many boxing fans, myself included, did not anticipate would happen. I gave Canelo both round 11 and 12, and this is what allowed him to salvage a respectable performance in the fight. In particular, his five or six punch combination in the beginning of round 12 was beautiful. Had he done that even once or twice per round he would have won in a blowout. I’m also impressed that he maintained the energy for this despite his increased bulk.

#3 Canelo has excellent defense and an excellent chin. GGG hit him, but he also missed a lot and did not hit full force as much as he would have liked. In fact, a lot of his defense was based on his implicit threat of explosive counters and combination punching. Having said that, for the most part the offense of Canelo was mediocre this fight – other than the occasional counters, from about round 3 to round 9 he languished on the ropes.

On the other hand, GGG did well also:

#1 He dominated the ring and was the ring general. This is without dispute. I gave Canelo only 3 rounds in the fight – one of the first two, and then round 11 and round 12. He cut off the ring effectively and basically intimidated Canelo into running to the ropes, exhausted and with his hands down for a good 8 rounds from rounds 3 to 12. Lederman scored the fight 8 to 4, which was reasonable, but I felt GGG clearly won round 3.

#2 His defense was effective. Canelo is an excellent combination puncher, but he did not get a chance to show it except in brief spurts early and late. He slipped many punches, and could effectively main good defensive range by staying out of close fighting, either on the ropes or in the center of the ring, which favors the speed and combination punching of Canelo.

#3 He dominated with the jab. The jab won him the rounds and won him the fight, the biased judging notwithstanding. How anyone could score the fight 118-110 Canelo is beyond me – that is as awful as the Canelo-Lara judge and CJ Ross with Canelo vs. Mayweather. But he dominated in landing the jab in the fight, and thus effectively controlled the distance, and rounds.

One can’t blame Canelo for being the box office draw and thus getting the edge from judges in a close fight. He brings in massive amounts of money is from a country – Mexico – with many boxing fans. Judges are people too and it is all too easy to see the fight in a skewed way when your effective economic boss brings in millions and millions of dollars.

Canelo managed to last 12 rounds; managed to save enough energy for an excellent performance in the championship rounds, in the beginning of round 12; and has an excellent chin.

I’m happy GGG did not get robbed of his belts, which was a big fear going into a city where he never has fought before. I’m also happy that there should be a Canelo-GGG 2, which I see going a similar way, due to the shenanigans of the judges. This was partly expected, as I indicated in the prediction article I wrote before the fight:

www.boxingnews24.com/2017/07/canelo-vs-ggg-2/

The lesson here for GGG is that he will not get a decision against a PPV superstar like Canelo unless he scores a knockdown. It is a sad fact of boxing, but it is a grim reality that must be accepted. He should carry this reality going forward, for it is tough for him to dominate the fight more than he did this time, and in a relatively even fight Canelo will for sure get the decision. Perhaps he can use leverage to have the fight set in New York next time, or better yet, in Kazakhstan.

All in all, though, great fight, respect to both fighters, I look forward to seeing them fight again, maybe in next May, maybe earlier!