Now former unified middleweight champion Gennady Gennadyavich Golovkin (38-1-1, 34 KO) and new champ Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KO) both emptied their tanks and showed terrific chins on Saturday night in Vegas. But once again, what’s right was sacrificed for what’s lucrative.
I give credit to Canelo for fighting valiantly. He brought the pressure this time landing plenty of hard shots. Most rounds were close and admittedly some were hard to score.
But each time Canelo came forward he was met with continuous accurate thudding jabs, often followed by GGG’s own power shots. Golovkin landed 32 more total punches and threw 257 more.
The Kazakh was bloodied but never hurt. The red haired Mexican was also bloodied and buzzed twice in the 10th.
In Canelo’s compubox favor were power punches. He threw 34 more and landed 27 more. But compubox stats can be slightly misleading in certain situations, this being one of them.
Anything other than a jab is considered a power punch. A flailing, off-balance right hand with nothing on it is a power punch. A check hook that barely grazes the forehead is a power punch.
This is not to say Alvarez didn’t land true power punches. He absolutely did. But there’s another side to it.
Golovkin’s jab is not a range finder or a pecking Paulie Malignaggi (no disrespect meant to him) type jab. It’s heavy and sometimes snaps your head back. It’s essentially a power punch in it’s own right.
Admittedly, I am a GGG fan but I try to be as objective as possible while scoring.
Though I varied slightly on how I got there, my score was identical to HBO unofficial scorer Harold Lederman’s 116-112 (8 rounds to 4) for the former champ. Harold is the only one on HBO who left his Mexican flag pompoms at home.
Viewers were forced to hear from Max Kellerman (Where have you gone Larry Merchant?) that Canelo was winning the “story of the fight.” Is that code for the fight is close enough for our 28 year old golden goose to be given a decision.
Roy Jones commented that Golovkin can’t be given a decision when he challenged Alvarez to come forward which he did, but did not punish Canelo to the body and completely dominate him. So does that mean that the thudding jabs, rights and left hooks Canelo walked into don’t matter?
There was nobody in my living room who did not feel GGG was the clear winner. Other writers and boxing media I respect: Teddy Atlas, Stephen A. Smith and Al Bernstein all had it for Golovkin.
Doug Fischer, Jerry Izenberg and Dan Rafael saw a draw. I found nobody I regularly read or listen to who scored an Alvarez victory.
But a Canelo win means better business for Las Vegas and HBO. That’s why the telecast is so partisan. Alvarez is 28 and has the bigger name. He can sell big events for at least five more years if he keeps winning, deserved or not.
Golovkin is 36 and any objective observer can see that he’s now running on fumes. Even if he got his deserved victories in these two fights he may very well lose to his next opponent. That’s not nearly as profitable.
GGG bares some responsibility here too. Again he abandoned what was once a fierce body attack. Had he put some of that “water in the basement” he may have been able to take more rounds, dominate the fight and be given a razor thin decision.
But what’s done is done so let’s look at where these two combatants go from here.
Canelo:
There are plenty of challenges out there for the new middleweight king. Unifications with Billy Joe Saunders (WBO strap holder) and the winner of the IBF title bout between Sergiy Derevyenchenko and Demetrius Andrade are viable.
Daniel Jacobs is big and dangerous but the fight is easy to make for HBO. Jermall Charlo is in my opinion the most talented fighter in the division right now. But don’t look for HBO and Showtime to get together to make that fight anytime soon.
Jaime Munguia is an up and coming Mexican badass who holds a 154 lb. title. Does Canelo do with Munguia what Floyd Mayweather did with him and offer big money to get the talented but green buck in the ring before he becomes too dangerous? Mexican vs. Mexican on Cinco de Mayo weekend?
There’s also the possibility of a third Golovkin fight. I think Canelo would definitely win, this time deservedly.
GGG:
A trip to Canastota, NY for enshrinement into the International Boxing Hall of Fame is certain. What’s also certain is that the record books will not be as kind to GGG as his dominance was to hardcore fight fans. Because the middleweight division (Canelo included) spent most of the decade running from Golovkin like he was carrying a butcher knife, he lacks a big signature win.
David Lemieux, Kel Brook, Daniel Jacobs, Martin Murray, Curtis Stevenson, Willie Monroe Jr. and Matthew Macklin are all quality fighters to varying degrees. None, however are household names.
He needed his hand raised in one of these fights and in my opinion earned it in both. But to be objective the tread on the tires was looking worn in the first fight.
They looked nearly bald in this fight. Even though I thought he won, I saw moments where it appeared his mind was telling him to pull the trigger but his body just wouldn’t fully cooperate like it once did.
I think if he continues to fight the steel belts will poke through and cause a blowout.
He sounds like he plans to fight on and who am I to say this warrior shouldn’t make his money. But if I were Abel Sanchez and those close to him I’d advise him to pull a Marvin Hagler.
Take your millions and tell the power brokers who you feel denied you what you earned to go to hell.
This kind of thing has always gone on in prize fighting. The fighters (MMA included) on a whole are the most noble of professional athletes. The powers that control things: promoters, networks, athletic commissions, sanctioning bodies are the least noble.
But because I love the fighters I won’t walk away. They spill their blood and sweat and face fears that you can’t quite appreciate from your living room, not just on fight night but also in the gym and in their dark moments alone with their thoughts. Yes they do this to make a living (and these guys a good one), but also for our entertainment.
That’s what makes the bullsh*t so disturbing. Yes, both fights between these two were competitive but history has been compromised. Talk soon.
-Marksman