Is Canelo Setting Himself Up for Failure in GGG Trilogy Fight?
There is no question that remaining at the top of any competitive field or market is a supreme challenge. The same is certainly true of the sport of boxing. There, in the super middleweight division, undisputed 168-pound champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (57-2-2, 39 KO’s) has reigned as the face of the sport for a number of years. Being that he is one of the most talented and recognized figures in the sport, his brand just took a major hit.
This is because in his last tour of duty, Alvarez was thoroughly out-boxed in his twelve round unanimous decision loss to Super WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol. It was the second time that the redhead went up to the division to stage a bout. In his premiere excursion at 175-pounds against Sergey Kovalev, Alvarez emerged with an impressive eleventh round knockout. Against Bivol however, the undisputed 168-pound champion finds himself trying to validate his position at the pinnacle of the sport.
HOT UNDER THE COLLAR
For his next assignment, the redhead will dance with Super WBA and IBF middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KO’s). The two will collide in a trilogy match that generally no one wants to see on September 17. Despite this fact, this is the bout that the business of boxing has created for us. Ironically enough, even though he didn’t see a point in staging a third dustup, Alvarez has remained awfully miffed towards Golovkin. In all the accompanying press events, he has been visibly angry and won’t stop talking about knocking out Golovkin.
“He always pretends to be a nice guy, like in front of the people, but he is an asshole!”
“[… knocking out Golovkin] it would be very satisfying because of everything that has come around this fight, the build-up, everything that’s happened with Golovkin. So this is going to be very satisfying, it will make me very happy!”
The constantly cantankerous disposition is rather new to Canelo and obviously is not going unnoticed. The question becomes, is this rage something that could become a problem for the Mexican champ? Now more than ever he will need a good showing to prove that he is not losing a step and that the Bivol outing was just a minor anomaly.
STAY FOCUSED!
One of the most notable and recent instances of emotions seeming to undo a fighter was Teofimo Lopez when he went against George Kambosos. Lopez was too heavily focused fulfilling his promise of stopping Kambosos and this worked against him from the second he slid through the ropes for combat. Now, there is a very eerie feeling that the redhead is in danger of falling into this same self-baited trap. Many, including Canelo, have pointed to GGG’s lackluster resume since his last duel with Canelo. Going a step further, Golovkin has not looked the best in those matches.
At the same time, GGG is still a great fighter. He craved this shot for some time and he is still a very heavy-handed boxer. Said to say, Canelo needs to guard against letting his emotions get the best of him in his upcoming contest. Having two back-to-back substandard fights might be a blow too heavy for even the Mexican icon to shake off. So, let’s sit back and see how this all plays out for the unusually flustered undisputed champion.
Reading Time: 3 minutes
By: Bakari Simpson
