Golovkin fails to impress Kellerman

Boxingnews24.com

By Allan Fox: In the view of many boxing fans, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin did a great job of shutting down the counter punching of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez last Saturday night in fighting to an oddly scored 12 round draw at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

HBO analyst Max Kellerman came away from watching the fight seemingly impressed with Canelo Alvarez than Triple G, despite believing that the Mexican star lost the fight in his opinion. Kellerman thought Golovkin should have done a lot more to earn the victory by staying in close, throwing to the body of Canelo, and trying to wear him down the way that boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez used to do.

Kellerman says Golovkin says he wanted to fight in the “Mexican style” and that he wanted a real “drama show” against Canelo, but then he turned around and fought from the outside for 12 rounds, using a European fighting style instead. Kellerman if Golovkin wanted a knockout, then he should have stayed in close to Canelo and taken whatever counter punches that he could land in order to try and KO him. Kellerman feels that Golovkin allowed Canelo to have escape routes to move around the ring with his decision to fight him at a distance instead of in close.

“I thought Triple G won, and I thought Canelo was a special fighter that night, because Canelo was the underdog and there was a reason why he was the underdog,” said Kellerman to ESPN. “So far in his career he’d been less impressive than Triple G against smaller opposition; true, better opponents, but smaller guys. Canelo was never considered a top pound-for-pound fighter by most. Triple G was considered as high as No.1. I thought Triple G was the bigger guy, and he had the much better amateur career, and he was the sharper boxer a lot of the times, even in this fight. He’s a sharp boxer even from the distance.So Triple G was the favorite for a reason, and with all of those advantages, Canelo held his own,” said Kellerman.

Golovkin made some mistakes in the fight by mainly fighting on the outside, not throwing body punches, not throwing combinations, and waiting too before letting his hands go when he did get in close to Canelo. Golovkin was waiting to see an opening when he was nose to nose with Canelo. Instead of throwing 3 to 4 punch combinations, Golovkin would wait too long before finally throwing a shot. Golovkin was missing a lot with his right hand because he was throwing it at a distance. GGG was never going to be able to land his right hand with any kind of consistency because of how far away he was when he would throw it.

Even with Golovkin staying on the outside and using his jab as his primary weapon, he still got the better of Canelo. There’s no question about that.

”I thought he won 2 of the first 3 rounds, and 2 of the last 3 round,” said Kellerman about Canelo Alvarez. ”Triple G won everything in between. So I thought you could have it anywhere from 6-6 to 8-4, Triple G. Those are all reasonable scores, but Canelo really fought his ever loving backside off, because that’s what was in front of him. I think Triple G may have been showing his age again,” said Kellerman.

Kellerman had Golovkin winning 8 rounds to 4 over Canelo, which is a similar score that many in the boxing world scored it in giving Triple G the win by a 116-112 score. Canelo fought well in spurts when he could land single shots to the head and body of Triple G. However, Canelo was limited to fighting well only at the start of each round. He was tire out after that and move around along the ropes. Canelo would still land shots from time to time the first minute of each round, but it was Golovkin that would own the last 2 minutes of the rounds. Even in rounds 1 & 2 and 11 & 12, which were Canelo’s rounds, according to Kellerman, Golovkin still controlled the last 2 minutes of those rounds. Kellerman didn’t point out how Canelo was fading after throwing shots at the start of the rounds. Canelo was fighting his backside off at the start of the rounds, but he would then gas out and fail to fight effectively.

”Maybe when you fight Danny Jacobs, the 2nd best middleweight in the world, when you fight Canelo Alvarez, on the night the second best middleweight in the world, the difference from fighting regular top 10 guys, he didn’t look like the same kind of world beater,” said Kellerman. ”Maybe it’s the combination of him being 35. When you’re fighting a great counter puncher and you want to win decisively, you’ve got to fight like Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. His fight against Edwin Rosario, when he was a much bigger puncher than Canelo for a lightweight. You’ve got to be willing to put your nose in there and risk getting knocked out yourself, which is humiliating, especially when Triple G has waited his whole life for this moment in order to pin the guy against the ropes and keep working him,” said Kellerman.

Kellerman has Golovkin mixed up with some other fighter. Golovkin has never been a great inside fighter. He smothers his own work when he’s in close, and he can’t generate a lot of power, which is probably why he didn’t say in close to Canelo in the rounds. If Golovkin was a great inside fighter like Chavez, he obviously would have stayed in close and worked Canelo’s body. Golovkin doesn’t seem to know how to throw body shots without getting countered. It takes a long time for a fighter to learn how to throw to the body without getting nailed by their opponents.

Golovkin doesn’t have the skills to fight on the inside. As much as Golovkin would like to be able to fight in the ‘Mexican style,’ he’s never going to be able to do it. Even Canelo doesn’t fight with the Mexican style. He’s totally unlike Chavez and Salvador Sanchez. Canelo is like a blend of the following fighters: Juan Manuel Marquez, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and George Foreman. He’s like all those guys in one. Mayweather is a better inside fighter than Canelo. We saw that when Mayweather was able to hold his own against Jose Luis Castillo back in 2002.

”But when Triple G got Canelo against the ropes, he still boxed him from the distance, because he has the European influence in his style; not just Mexican style,” said Kellerman. ”In so doing, I thought he won the fight, but he also gave Canelo some escape routes. He didn’t get in there and muscle him and keep him on the ropes and in the corner, which is all I thought he really needed to do to score a knockout, which is what I thought was possible for him. If you want to be a great pressure fighter, and Triple G talks about Mexican style, but if you want to win your super fight that way, then you have to be willing to take those risks. You might get knocked out, but those risks you have to be willing to take,” said Kellerman.

Golovkin did what he was capable of doing in jabbing Canelo when he got him against the ropes. Golovkin boxed him the way that Mayweather did. The blueprint created by Mayweather works against Canelo. As much as Kellerman disliked it when Golovkin used his height, reach and jab to control the fight on the outside against Canelo, it worked well for him. Canelo was helpless when Golovkin was on the outside. There was nothing Canelo could do but move away to the other side of the ring.

“Canelo had been on the stage with Floyd Mayweather. He’s been on the stage with Miguel Cotto. He’d been there before,” said Kellerman. ”Triple G, at the age of 35, he’d waited his entire life for this moment. Knowing he’s up against a counter puncher, so that his normal aggressive style is going to be countered effectively by his opponent. So what he did was he started slow. He wanted to see what the guy had. Maybe this was a learning experience for Triple G,” said Kellerman.

Golovkin’s slow start in rounds 1 and 2 against Canelo was a mistake for sure, but I don’t think it would have changed the outcome of the fight. With the way that 2 of the judges were scoring the fight, I don’t think they would have given the decision to Golovkin even if he had dominated the first 2 rounds. We saw how one of the judges gave Canelo round 7, which was a clear Golovkin round. If the judge was scoring the fight like that, I think it’s reasonable to assume that he would have still given rounds 1 and 2 to Canelo no matter how dominant Golovkin was. The judge that scored the fight 10 rounds to 2 for Canelo was someone that seemed to prefer the Mexican fighter’s style of fighting over Golovkin’s. I don’t think it’s the pressure that got to Golovkin like Kellerman believes to be the case.

”Why wasn’t he throwing to the body? When you throw to the body, you take the risk of being countered upstairs,” said Kellerman. ”But if you throw to the body, as heavy-handed as Triple G is, maybe you score a knockout late. That’s what I meant by willing to take risks,” said Kellerman.
Golovkin wasn’t going to throw to the body of Canelo because it would have meant that he would be countered. I don’t think Golovkin had any worried about him being able to take the shots from Canelo. I think he was more concerned with the judges being impressed with Canelo’s counter shots landing. The judges would then score the fight in Canelo’s favor.

”A lot of people will favor Canelo in a rematch, particularly because the rematch is going to take place on Cinco de Mayo, if there is one,” said Kellerman. ”Canelo is done fighting for the year. He fights twice a year now, Cinco de Mayo, Mexican Independence Day. Those 2 dates indicate that you own boxing in North America. That’s why Floyd [Mayweather Jr.] always liked those dates. Those are now Canelo’s dates. If you want to fight him in a rematch, it’s going to be on Cinco de Mayo,” said Kellerman.

Kellerman brings up a good point in talking about how Canelo will have an advantage in fighting Golovkin on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo next May. I don’t think that’s going to help him win a controversial decision. With the way the judges were hammered by the boxing fans for their strange scoring off the Canelo-Golovkin fight last Saturday, you can bet the judges will be concentrating very closely to the fight, and they’re going to try and score the fight how it plays out, and not just give it to Canelo for him fighting hard in the opening minute of the round while ignoring the last 2 minutes of the round.

”Triple G is going to be 36, pushing 37 at that time,” said Kellerman. ”Maybe he’s a more diminished version of Triple G, and an even better version of Canelo, but the real question is Triple G at the age where he doesn’t want to do that [push through a physical wall], because it hurts. If he fights Canelo the same way, maybe he wins the same way and gets another draw or a close loss or maybe a close win. But is that the way people want to see Triple G or do they want to see Triple G, because he knocks out guys and comes and gets them,” said Kellerman.

I don’t see Golovkin getting old in 8 months for the rematch with Canelo on May 5 of next year. Kellerman is really going into a worst case scenario in seeing Golovkin aging overnight. I don’t think it’s going to happen. Canelo could age overnight. People age differently. With the way that Golovkin fights, it doesn’t take much energy for him to throw jabs on the outside. I would venture to guess that Golovkin will be able to fight the way he does right now even into his 40s if he’s going to stay on the outside and use his power jab to control shorter-armed fighters like Canelo. Golovkin would have problems obviously against a taller fighter like the 6’1” Danny Jacobs. But even against Jacobs, Golovkin controlled the fight with his jab.

I disagree with Kellerman. Golovkin can fight the exact same way and beat Canelo by staying at a distance and jabbing. The fighter that is at risk in losing the rematch is Canelo, because Golovkin will push a faster pace in the first 3 rounds, and he’ll also make sure he fights hard in the last two rounds in the 11th and 12th, so that Canelo can’t steal those rounds like he did last Saturday. Golovkin outworked Canelo in both of those rounds, but the judges were obviously more impressed with Canelo’s work in the opening minute of the round. Golovkin just needs to attack Canelo hard in the first minute of every round, because that’s the only time Canelo is capable of fighting hard and winning the rounds. Canelo is done after the first minute of the rounds.

”When him and Abel Sanchez talk ‘Mexican style,’ really think what that means,” said Kellerman. ”When he tells me after the fight, ‘drama show’ and ‘he moved.’ What did you think he was going to do? Triple G is a hunter. Of course, you’re going to move away from the guy, but you’re not going to make him stay in one place and beat him up. It’s easy to say,” said Kellerman.

Canelo is obviously going to fight the same exact way in the rematch as he did in the first fight against Triple. Canelo can’t change because he doesn’t have the reach to hit Golovkin often enough. If Canelo just stays in one place, Golovkin will jab and pot shot him until his face is swollen and he’s defenseless. Canelo has to move. Canelo can’t press the attack against Golovkin for prolonged periods due to his stamina problems. We saw last Saturday.

Canelo can only fight hard for the first 30 to 45 seconds of the rounds. He gets tired after that. But what Golovkin can do is unload on Canelo with sustained combinations if he wants to knock him out like he did in the last 10 seconds of the fight. That will work a lot better for Golovkin than him staying in close the way Kellerman wants him to. Golovkin would be smothering his own power if he stayed in close. In close fighting is mostly for short guys. It’s not for fighters with long arms like Golovkin. Kellerman’s ideas for what Golovkin should do against Canelo in the rematch seem wrong-headed, as if he hasn’t studied his body type, and what works for him. Golovkin doesn’t generate a lot of power in close. His arms are too long. So why would he change his style of fighting to suit Kellerman?

“HBO would prefer it if I’m working the [Canelo-Golovkin] fight, not to pick the fighter to give the impression that I’m biased,” said Kellerman.”If I hear from Triple G that we’re going to do the same thing [as last time], then I’m making Canelo the favorite. If I hear that Abel Sanchez and Triple G say, ‘we learned a lesson in the first fight; when we say Mexican style, we’re looking at Julio Cesar Chavez.’ Triple G still has a lot of Eastern European flavor in him. When he gets you on the ropes, he still wants to throw those straight shots up the middle from the distance. If I hear from Abel and him, ‘it’s Chavez time,’ then I like Triple G,” said Kellerman.

Golovkin will always fight the way he does. It’s too late for him to change his fighting style at his age. Kellerman can pick against him if he chooses not to fight on the inside the way he wants him to against Canelo, but the odds-makes have already installed Golovkin as an early favorite in the rematch. The odds are even wider in favor of Golovkin than before. This suggests that the bettors saw Golovkin as the guy should have won the fight last Saturday night. If it’s not broke, then don’t fix it, as they like to say. If Golovkin chooses to change his fighting style to please Kellerman, then he would be taking a stupid approach to the rematch against Canelo. How do you know that Kellerman isn’t asking Golovkin to change so he can lose to Canelo, who is one of HBO’s darlings? Canelo is HBO’s No.1 fighter. You can argue that it’s in HBO’s best interest if Canelo beats Golovkin so that he can keep bringing in high ratings.