Golovkin not intimidated by Canelo’s new muscle mass

Boxingnews24.com

By Dan Ambrose: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s new muscle mass he’s put on doesn’t have Gennady “GGG” Golovkin too worried about mixing it up with him on September 16. Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) laughed when asked if he was concerned with the added muscle weight the Golden Boy Promotions star Canelo has packed on for their fight in less 3 weeks on HBO pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Golovkin, 35, said it’s not the size of a fighter that makes them good. It’s the style and what’s inside of them.

What’s interesting about Canelo’s added weight is he’s denying that he put on added muscle. He tried to say he’s the same size as always when it’s clear that he’s looking at least 10 pounds heavier than he’s been in the past. Whether that means Canelo is going to rehydrate to the 180s or the upper 170s is unclear, as he weigh-in on the night of his fights the way that normal fighters do.

It doesn’t matter whether Canelo reveals his weight or not, it’s easy to see how big he is just by looking at him. Canelo can deny that he’s gained muscle weight, but Golovkin and the boxing fans can easily see that he has put on muscle, a lot of it.

“Nothing special, I know my job,” said Golovkin when asked what he’s done to prepare for Canelo. “I believe Canelo is ready for this fight, 100 percent, because the last couple of fights, he looked strong. I think his style is the same. I’m ready too. I want this fight a long time,” said Golovkin.

Golovkin says he hasn’t done anything special to get ready for the Canelo fight, and you have to believe him. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez says this is an easy fight for them to prepare for, considering that they don’t need to get a lot of large super middleweight sparring partners like they did for his last opponent Daniel Jacobs. For that fight, Golovkin had unbeaten super middleweight knockout artist David Benavidez in his camp helping him with sparring. Benavidez is arguably better than Jacobs, and Golovkin obviously had a lot of good sparring with him in preparation for the fight with the New Yorker on March 18.

Sanchez has been using regular middleweights to help GGG prepare for the 5’8” Canelo. It’s important that Golovkin not over-train for the Canelo fight like he appeared to do for the Jacobs fight. Golovkin looked worn down by the time he entered the ring to face Jacobs. The sparring for Jacobs had to have been grueling for Golovkin. The last three weeks before the Jacobs fight, Golovkin looked worn out from a hard training camp. In contrast, Golovkin looked a lot fresher and rested during Monday’s media workout in Los Angeles, California. Golovkin looks like he’s not been going overboard for the Canelo training camp. Golovkin looked ill in the final weeks of his training camp for his fight against welterweight Kell Brook last September. It’s unclear whether Golovkin was sick or if he’d just over-trained for the Brook’s fight. I think Sanchez has backed off with a lot of the extra hard training he’d been having Golovkin do in preparation for his last 2 fights. The results seem to show that Golovkin is a lot stronger and healthier looking for the Canelo fight. That’s unfortunate news for Golden Boy, because their No.1 fighter Canelo could taste defeat, again, but worse than in his previous defeat against the light hitting Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013.

Losing to Golovkin usually means getting knocked out. A decision loss wouldn’t hurt Canelo’s career nearly as much as a knockout defeat to Golovkin. At least if Canelo gets beaten by a decision, he and Golden Boy can complain that they were robbed by the judges. They can muddy the water and taint Golovkin’s win in the same way Jacobs tainted GGG’s win over him by continually saying that he should have won their fight last March. To build credibility for him deserving a victory over Triple G, Jacobs makes it habit now to tell the media that people come up to him all the time and tell him that he should have been given the decision over Golovkin. Canelo could do the same thing if he loses by a decision to Golovkin. But if Canelo, 27, loses to Golovkin by a knockout on September 16, it’s going to be a much different story. Canelo won’t be able to explain that type of loss away as easy. He can’t say he was robbed if he gets knocked out. The only excuse Canelo can give is say that it was too hard for him go move down from 164 pounds, the last weight that he weighed in at for his May 6 fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fight on HBO PPV. I don’t know if the boxing public is going to be too sympathetic to Canelo if he says he was drained for the Golovkin fight. They expect a fighter with as much pro experience as Canelo to know how to make weight without draining himself. I don’t see an excuse like that from Canelo being bought by the boxing public. Canelo’s fans will buy his excuses but not the casual and hardcore boxing fans that neutral fans and just wanted to see a good fight.

Likewise, if Golovkin loses to Canelo, the fans aren’t going to buy into any excuses from him. Golovkin doesn’t seem like the type that would attempt work on damage control by giving excuses. His trainer Abel Sanchez might give some explanations for what went wrong, but I don’t think he would make excuses. Sanchez is the type that believes in giving credit for Golovkin’s opponents when they do well against him. Sanchez complimented Danny Jacobs after he gave Golovkin a good fight last March. I think Sanchez would do the same thing with Canelo if he beats Golovkin or rives him a competitive fight.

”Not muscle, it’s a style,” said Golovkin in saying that Canelo’s added muscle won’t win their fight. ”It’s very important inside. Canelo is Canelo, you know? I know my style. It’s very important for people. This is better for people. More energy, more dramatics, more power, more speed, everything is new. No, I’m very comfortable,” said Golovkin when asked if he’s intimidated by Canelo’s added size.

Canelo should have realized from his last fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on May 6 that he isn’t going to be able to beat Golovkin by adding extra muscle weight for their fight. Canelo didn’t look any more powerful than he was in the past when he was fighting at 154. In fact, Canelo’s added muscle weight seemed to make him less of a knockout threat, as his punches were slower, and easier to track by Chavez Jr. That’s something that Canelo didn’t seem to realize. Canelo and his trainer Eddie Reynoso should have sat down and pieced together the reasons why he was unable to knockout the punching bag-like Chavez Jr. That was a fight that Canelo absolutely should have won by a knockout if he had any real punching power in the middleweight division. Unfortunately, Golovkin’s power shots had no effect on him.

”It’s very interesting, September 16th. Right now this is a different story,” said Golovkin in response to the question of whether Danny Jacobs was a more challenging fight than Canelo.

There’s no question that Jacobs was the more challenging fight for Golovkin than the Canelo fight. Jacobs, 5’11”, was taller, heavier and faster than Golovkin. The punching power between the two fighters was obviously close as well. It was a much more difficult fight for Golovkin than the one he has in front of him in the smaller, weaker Canelo. Jacobs is about as fast as Canelo in terms of hand speed, but much bigger and far more mobile. Canelo doesn’t move around the ring well at all. Golovkin had to go after Jacobs, who used movement against him in the first half of the fight. In the last 6 rounds, Jacobs started to press the attack against Golovkin, and he ran into a lot of jabs in that half of the fight.

”Jacobs, it was a very good fight with Jacobs, and right now it’s a new story, a new step,” said Golovkin.

Canelo is a lot different fighter than Jacobs. Canelo fights in brief spurts, and then takes 15 to 20 seconds off resting against the ropes. Jacobs didn’t spent much time against the ropes against Golovkin. When Jacobs did fight with his back against the ropes in round 4, he was dropped. Jacobs was switching his stance to southpaw, trying to outsmart Golovkin. I don’t think it worked well, because Jacobs was too static and not forcing the fight to happen. Golovkin was more than happy to stay on the outside and throw jabs in that fight. Jacobs was hurting himself when he was fighting southpaw, because he wasn’t attacking when he was fighting out of that stance. he was mostly just jabbing.

Golovkin says he didn’t watch Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor

”No comment, because I watched HBO 24/7,” said Golovkin when asked if he watched last Saturdays Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor fight on HBO PPV. ”Sorry, guys. No, come on. Maybe I’ll see it next week.”

It was a good diplomatic answer by Golovkin to the question of whether he wanted Mayweather-McGregor fight on Showtime PPV. Golovkin is under contract with HBO. It would have sounded bad if he had said that he ordered the Mayweather-McGregor fight on HBO. I do believe Golovkin when he says he didn’t see the Mayweather and McGregor fight. Golovkin had previously that he saw it as a circus fight. It makes sense for Golovkin not to want to pour $100 down the drain in ordering the Mayweather vs. McGregor event fight.