Martirosyan says Canelo should “RUN” from Golovkin in rematch

Boxingnews24.com

By Sean Jones: Vanes Martirosyan has a bit of advice for Saul Canelo Alvarez for when he meets middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin in their rematch in September and that’s for him to run from him during the fight. Martirosyan (36-4-1, 21 KOs) thinks that if Canelo stands his ground and tries to fight GGG for the entire fight, he’ll get knocked out cold.

Last Saturday night, Martirosyan found out for himself what happens when you make the mistake of standing in front of Golovkin a little too long. GGG knocked him out in the 2nd round after hurting him with a big left hook to the head when he had him trapped against the ropes. Martirosyan was rendered defenseless after GGG rocked him with a left hand. Golovkin then finished him off with two more shots to send him down flat on his face on the canvas.

“Run,” Martirosyan said about what Canelo should do in the rematch with GGG. “What surprised me is, people said in his last two fights when he fought Danny [Jacobs] and he fought Canelo, people were saying he’s declining. I said the guy still has his ‘O’ and he’s undefeated, so why would he be declining. It’s just that styles make fights,”Martirosyan said.

As much as Canelo’s promoters want to say that he’s going to fight differently in the rematch with Golovkin, I don’t think he can. Canelo doesn’t have the engine to fight hard for a full 12 rounds against Golovkin. Canelo fought a little harder in the last three rounds against GGG, but only because he was totally desperate by that point in the fight. Golovkin appeared to win every round from the 3rd to the 10th. Golovkin had dominated rounds 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. The fight was basically won by Golovkin, but not with the Nevada assigned judges that worked the fight. They turned in set of shocking scores that didn’t match the fight that had taken place.

It’s very probable that Canelo will use a lot of movement in the rematch with Golovkin just like he did in their first fight. Canelo’s promoters Eric Gomez and Oscar De La Hoya have been saying that Golovkin is scared of him now because of how their fighter was more aggressive in the last 3 rounds against GGG in the first fight in September. If you look at the replay of those rounds, Golovkin was the one that was fighting hard for 90 percent of the rounds. Canelo was still only fighting in spurts even in the championship rounds in the 10th, 11th and 12th. Golovkin was the aggressor and the one pushing the fight, whereas Canelo was taking frequent breathers and still moving along the ropes to evade the pressure 90 percent of the time.

Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) fought a defensive fight against Gennady last September in their contest at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Canelo’s trainers had him moving along the ropes, giving ground and only looking to counter. It wasn’t until the last 2 rounds of the fight that Canelo started to come forward and mix it up with Golovkin.

Golovkin still got the better of Canelo in rounds 10 and 11, but the judged were impressed with the Mexican fighter and gave him the last 3 rounds. Golovkin learned the hard way that to beat a popular fighter like Canelo, you have to knock him out and not allow the judges to score the fight. Golovkin thought he could beat Canelo by a decision, but that was a mistake on his part to believe that.

If a rematch between Canelo and Golovkin takes place in September, it will almost surely be staged in Las Vegas once again unless the Mexican star chooses to move the rematch to Texas. The Nevada State Athletic Commission suspended Canelo for 6 months for his 2 failed tests for clenbuterol. It’s unclear whether Canelo will have hard feelings with the Commission for them suspending him.

The Nevada Commission doesn’t differentiate between fighters that test positive for low levels of a substance like clenbuterol and those that test at high levels, and they don’t care about excuses, such as the tainted meat excuse given by Canelo. A positive test is a positive test in the eyes of the Nevada Commission. If Canelo fights in Texas, it’s possible that they’re Commission might be more receptive to the tainted meat excuse if he tests positive once again for clenbuterol. Of course, if that happens, Canelo is going to take heavy criticism from the boxing public, because his meat excuse can’t continue to be used to explain away his positive tests for the performance enhancing substance clenbuterol.

”Those guys that came to the fight, Canelo and Danny, I felt like they came to go 12 rounds,” Martirosyan said. ”They didn’t come to really win the fight. They just wanted to go 12 rounds. Danny actually did a really good job. Canelo ran from Gennady. I think if Canelo stayed in front of Gennady, he would have gotten knocked out cold,” Martirosyan said.

Jacobs didn’t start fighting until the 7th round against Triple G last year in March in their fight in New York on HBO PPV. Jacobs clearly gave away the first 6 rounds. The New York judges surprisingly gave Jacobs five of the last six rounds. The fight did not look like Jacobs had won that many rounds in the last half. I thought Jacobs won 3 of the last 6 rounds, but those were very close rounds that could have gone GGG’s way. What made it hard to give even 3 rounds to Jacobs in the last half of the fight was the jabs that he was eating constantly, and the movement that was still using. Jacobs was fighting in spurts and he looked like he was afraid to stand and fight Golovkin.

“He showed a lot of boxing skills. It surprised me,” Martirosyan said about Golovkin. “He’s one hell of a fighter. They told me I was the hardest puncher. He felt it. Golovkin is a hell of a puncher. Every punch was the same power, and that surprise me. But what surprised me the most is I thought he would come forward more. I was waiting for something else, but he showed up as a completely different fighter,” Martirosyan said.