Canelo Struggles to Justify Meaningless Golovkin Fight
Recently, undisputed super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KO’s) made headlines for penning a massive two-fight deal. After signing, Alvarez had committed himself to a showdown with WBA Super light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol and then IBF middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KO’s). Few have anything negative to say about the Bivol dustup but the same cannot be said about the Golovkin bout.
It’s now been nearly half a decade since the two last fought and the redhead walked off with a majority decision win. Since that time, GGG has drifted into complete and total irrelevance in the division. Even as a belt holder, his name is rarely if ever mentioned among the would-be meaningful fights that could be made. To add further insult to injury, Golovkin has been turning in a series of subpar performances. In fact, most in the boxing world felt that he lost to Sergiy Derevyanchenko and was saved by a gift decision.
TONGUE-TIED
Even with GGG having devolved into the bland, flavorless opponent selection that he has, you’d figure that Canelo would still sell it, somehow. He does have a whole promotional team behind him to dream up just this type of response, right? Sadly, this was not the case.
When making a recent appearance on the Gonzalez vs Martinez DAZN telecast, Canelo took the time to address the crowd. Naturally, the two-fight deal and GGG came up. Yet, when directly asked ‘why a Golovkin bout now,’ Canelo looked as confused as if he was asked to solve a complex quantum physics equation. Then his response was weaker than a virgin daiquiri.
“I don’t know why now. For me, I think that was enough. We got this deal. For me, it’s the best deal!”
GOOD FOR ME, NOT YOU!
On one hand, the unintentional honesty is nearly shocking. Here, the redhead is literally saying that not only did the fans not want this fight, neither did he! For a fighter who made the little chime ‘payday, you want a payday’ popular, he has just ratted himself out about going for his own money grab.
Instead of Bivol and GGG, Canelo could have fought Jermall Charlo and David Benavidez for $15 million more dollars. Yet, each of these encounters would have been difficult outs. So, according to the Mexican himself, the one tough bout with Bivol and the tepid GGG duel was the best deal. Must be nice to get a major ‘payday’ whether it’s worth it or not!
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By: Bakari Simpson
