Kovalev talks Canelo-Golovkin rematch

By Sean Jones: Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev is looking forward to the rematch between Saul Canelo Alvarez and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. Like a lot of boxing fans, Kovalev is interested in seeing Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) and GGG battle it out a second time after the two of them fought each other to a 12 round draw last September.

In Kovalev’s opinion, Golovkin clearly won the fight against Canelo. He thinks the judges got it wrong in that fight, but it still worked out well for Triple G due to him getting a rematch with Canelo. There’s big money to be made for the unbeaten Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) when he faces Canelo a second time. With the judges scoring the fight a draw, Golovkin wasn’t given nearly as bad a deal than if they had given the victory to Canelo. Golovkin kept his IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight titles, and he gets a do over against the popular Mexican star Canelo.

“God blessed Gennady with a draw,” said Kovalev to Behind The Gloves. “There’s going to be a rematch where they can get more money. It’s a crazy decision, but a decision for a rematch. Of course, Gennady won the fight. But right now, who will be the best in the rematch is interesting, because Canelo couldn’t knock Gennady out with his favorite punch. A lot of fighters he knocks out,” said Kovalev.

Canelo doesn’t knockout the good fighters during his career. Kovalev fails to acknowledge that. Canelo has fought 5 good fighters during his career and they are as follows:

• Miguel Cotto – UD 12 for Canelo

• Floyd Mayweather Jr. – MD 12 for Floyd

• Erislandy Lara – Canelo SD 12

• Gennady Golovkin – Draw 12

• Austin Trout – UD 12

The rest of the guys that Canelo has fought have been flawed and/or old timers like James Kirkland, Shawn Mosley, Amir Khan, Kermit Cintron, Liam Smith, Alfredo Angulo and Josesito Lopez. Canelo knocked out all those guys except for Mosley, who he never came close to knocking out.

Kovalev says he wants to see judges disqualified for life if they turn in bad scorecards, as he feels that it hurts the sport of boxing to have these types of judges scoring fights.

“Disqualification for life, because these judges make terrible boxing,” said Kovalev when asked about the controversial score turned in by one of the judges that worked the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight.

It’s unlikely that judges will ever be disqualified for handing in poor scorecards. That’s not realistic. But it would be good for the judges to be graded, and the bad ones filtered out of boxing so that fighters don’t have their careers hurt by controversial decisions.

Fighters lose a lot of money when they’re the victim of a controversial decision. For example, if Golovkin was given a victory by the judges over Canelo last September, he would be in the position to get a lot more money in the rematch than he is now. By the judges scoring the Canelo-GGG fight a draw, you can argue that Golovkin will get far less money in the rematch with Canelo. That’s just one example.

When a fighter loses due to a controversial decision, their opponent often moves on and fights other people. It can be a real negative for the losing fighter, especially if he loses a controversial decision against one of the champions. If the sanctioning bodies don’t come to the rescue for the losing fighter by them ordering a rematch, they’re left out in the cold. The champion moves on, and the challenger’s career is hurt by having their record marred with a loss.

It’s starting to look like Canelo won’t be taking the rematch with Golovkin just yet. Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy is talking of wanting to possibly match him against the winner of next month’s title fight between WBO 160lb champion Billy Joe Saunders and David Lemieux. De La Hoya also mentioned Daniel Jacobs as a possible opponent for Canelo; although that’s not as believable, given Canelo’s tendency to take safer fights.

Canelo will be fighting on Cinco de Mayo next year, and Golden Boy is interested in having his fight take place in Las Vegas, Nevada at the T-Mobile Arena, which is where Canelo fought Golovkin last September. It’s unclear if any of the same judges that worked Canelo’s fight with GGG will be working his May 5 fight as well. That would make for a lot of controversy if one or more of the judges do work his next fight. It’s up to the Nevada State Athletic Commission. They’re the ones that assign the judges to fights.

If Canelo fights the Saunders-Lemieux winner or Danny Jacobs on May 5, then Canelo-Golovkin 2 would almost surely take place on the Mexican Independence Day holiday weekend in September 2018. That still wouldn’t be a sure thing though. Canelo could wind up facing someone else entirely, and push the Golovkin rematch into 2019. Golovkin will be turning 37 in 2019. He’ll be older, and possibly not the same fighter he is now.

Golovkin is 8 years older than Canelo, and it would work in Golden Boy’s favor to have the Canelo-Golovkin II rematch pushed as far into the future as possible. The one problem that Golden Boy will have in delaying the Canelo-GGG rematch is it would mean that Canelo would have to face top middleweights in the meantime. There are only a small handful of middleweights that the boxing public wants to see against guys like Canelo and GGG.

The top middleweights are these fighters:

• Danny Jacobs

• Jermall Charlo

• Ryota Murata

• Sergiy Derevyanchenko

• Billy Joe Saunders

• David Lemieux

• Gennady Golovkin

• Demetrius Andrade

If Canelo deviates from fighting those guys in 2018 and beyond, he’s going to look like a cherry picker in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans.

Canelo already has a reputation for being carefully matched by Golden Boy due to his recent fights against these weaker fighters:

• James Kirkland

• Amir Khan

• Liam Smith

• Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

If Canelo is forced to fight the best contenders or champions while he makes Golovkin wait until 2019 or later, he could lose to one of them. The blueprint is already out in how to beat Canelo by jabbing him from the outside, pressuring him, and forcing him to fight the full 3 minutes of each round. Canelo would have problems fighting Jacobs and Derevyanchenko. Those guys would put a lot of pressure on Canelo, and force him to go out of his comfort zone. It could end badly for Canelo.

Ducking a rematch with Golovkin could hurt Canelo, as he’s not a true middleweight. He’s too small for the division, and bulking up has just made him slower, and it’s hurt his stamina.