Loeffler: Let’s see if the ‘runner’ Canelo continues to favor T-Mobile after GGG beats him

Boxingnews24.com

By Allan Fox

Tom Loeffler has his doubts whether Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez will continue to view the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas as his favorite venue after he becomes middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin’s next victim on May 5th in his 20th title defense.

It was announced today that Canelo Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) and IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) will be fighting on May 5th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The previous fight brought in 1.3 million buys on HBO pay-per-view on September 16th last year. The contest had no winner, however. The judges scored it a 12 round draw. The draw was the last thing that boxing fans expected from the fight, as it appeared to have a clear winner in Triple G. But the scoring by the judges showed how a good fight can be ruined by a small group that sees a match differently from the masses.

”The last time they me in the ring, the tie went to the runner — Canelo Alvarez,”Loeffler said. ”We’ll see if T-Mobile Arena remains Canelo’s favorite venue after he becomes Gennady’s 20th and record-tying title defense.”

It would be Canelo’s second disappointing fight at the T-Mobile Arena if he loses to Golovkin on May 5th. Canelo didn’t do well against Triple G on September 16th. The judges gave Canelo a HUGE break in scoring it a 12 round draw. Canelo was missing in action from rounds 3 to 11. He was not able to do anything other than move, and land a few pesky shots. Canelo seems to know that he didn’t do well, which is why he’s moving his training camp for rematch with Triple G to the Colorado Mountains on March 3-4. Canelo is going to work his conditioning at high altitude the way Golovkin does at training in Big Bear, California. I don’t think it’s going to work for Canelo nearly as well as it does Golovkin.

In GGG’s case, he’s always had good conditioning even before he started training at Big Bear. I don’t think it makes much difference. Canelo has less to work with because he’s always had poor stamina since he turned pro. Going up in the mountains of Colorado to train is probably going to be fruitless.

Canelo’s isn’t entirely just his stamina. What we saw in the first fight was that Canelo didn’t want to stand and fight Golovkin because he didn’t want to get hit a lot by him. That was completely separate from Canelo’s stamina issues, which made him doubly ineffective after the first 60 seconds would elapse in each round. Canelo would tire out and not want to trade with Golovkin. Canelo didn’t want to trade anyway, but his stamina problems made him even more reluctant to stand and fight.

Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez says it was a tough decision to find a venue to stage the rematch between Canelo and Golovkin. Loeffler wanted the fight to take place in a neutral venue this time in New York or Dallas, Texas rather than going back to the T-Mobile Arena, which favored Canelo. Golden Boy wanted the T-Mobile and that’s where it went back to.

“It was close. It was a very hard decision,” Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez said to ESPN in talking about deciding on which venue to stage the Canelo-Golovkin 2 rematch.

There was never any doubt that Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo would get their way and have the rematch take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Vegas. That’s where they wanted the fight to take place the whole time. It was a waste of time for Loeffler to push for New York or Dallas when Golden Boy wanted the fight to be staged at the same place as the first fight. What they have to hope is that there isn’t a controversial decision again that favors that fighter. That’s the sport of boxing doesn’t need those things happening repeatedly. It’ll give Las Vegas and the T-Mobile Arena bad rep if the A-side fighter is involved in repeated controversial decisions. Canelo’s fight with Erislandy Lara also was a controversial one that saw him get a win over the Cuban fighter in July 2014 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

”This is where I’ll end it by doing what I and my fans most desire: knocking him out,”Canelo said.

Canelo needs to stick with whatever works for him. Trying to KO Golovkin would be a mistake for Alvarez, as he’s not a real knockout puncher at 160. Canelo doesn’t know how to throw sustained punches. Canelo couldn’t knockout Miguel Cotto or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Those fighters would have been under serious duress if they fought Golovkin. Canelo should try and do what he did last time against Golovkin by sticking and moving as much as possible. Since the judges were scoring the rounds based on Canelo landing 2 or 3 hard punches and ignoring what Golovkin was doing, he needs to continue to fight like that.

I don’t think Canelo wants to be booed again by the boxing fans after the May 5th like he was in the first Triple G fight last September. The fans didn’t like the decision by the judges, and they didn’t are care for Canelo’s less than sportsmanlike comments when interviewed after the fight. Canelo said Golovkin isn’t a hard puncher. It was a crazy thing for Canelo to say because he came off as bitter, angry and sulking. That’s not how boxing fans want to see their fighters after things don’t work out for them. In contrast, Golovkin was upbeat when interviewed by HBO’s Max Kellerman. Golovkin was smiling and proudly saying that he still had his belts. Golovkin looked like the winner with the way he smiled and gave a positive message. Canelo looked like he clearly lost, and he couldn’t disguise it no matter how hard he tried. In a time like that, Canelo would have made more fans if he admitted that he lost the fight and that he had given his best shot. The fans would have respected him more if he had been real with them.

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