By Sean Jones: Gennadiy Golovkin says it’s not personal for him to enter his third fight with Canelo Alvarez on Sept. 17.
Despite Canelo testing positive for the banned substance clenbuterol years ago and receiving a controversial 12-round draw in the first fight with Golovkin and an equally questionable win in the second, GGG says he has no animosity towards him.
Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) will look to level the score against the Mexican star in his trilogy on September 17 on DAZN pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Interestingly, that’s the same place where Golovkin and Canelo fought during their first two fights together. Given the questionable score in those two contests, it’s unclear why Canelo wanted to bring him back to T-Mobile Arena.
You can argue that Canelo should have opted for a different location, even if he was in the same city.
If there is another questionable decision that goes Canelo’s way, some fight fans will point fingers, especially after the bizarre 115-113 x 3 scores that were handed out for Alvarez’s last fight against Dmitry Bivol at the same venue.
Promoter Eddie Hearn believes Golovkin could be stronger for this fight due to the contest being held at 168 instead of 160.
In Golovkin’s last two fights, he looked worn out coming in at 160 weight, and it was pretty clear he needed to go up to 168 to make it easier.
“Gennadiy, you are among the top tier fighters and you seem the least emotional. You always seem to have the same behavior all the time,” Ken Rideout told Teddy Atlas’s The Fight.
“Even when you’re talking to Canelo, who I understand, you don’t really like him, and he seems to be really offended every time you mention his doping sanction, for which he was convicted.
“I’m surprised he was so upset because he was sanctioned by a third party, not you. How personal is it to you, and do you really dislike it the way I think you like it?” Rideout said.
“It is not personal. When things are personal to you, you try to compare yourself to your opponent. You try to think who is better. You try to prove something to yourself.
“For me, it’s just another fight, albeit with an outstanding fighter and a very interesting fighter. It’s going to be an interesting fight, but again, nothing personal. Let’s take my opponent against Dmitry Bivol. There was nothing personal in that fight. It was just boxing.
“Same here for me. It’s just business, just boxing. I see no reason to go into personal details about it. Not worth it. the way it is [Canelo] behaved for the last four years, I do not want to descend to their level.
“I don’t want to come down and take it personally. That would be unprofessional,” Golovkin said.
“For what it’s worth, I respect the way you carry yourself and I give you credit for not letting yourself be lured into trash talk,” Rideout said. “I always enjoy the pre-fights with you because it’s all business, and it seems so obvious at all the press conferences and weigh-ins.”
“If you can’t talk about boxing and communicate with your opponent without insulting them, without using obscenities or talking trash while saying, obscene words, it’s not worth communicating with that opponent.
“We have a saying that can be translated verbatim. A bee couldn’t explain to a fly that honey is better than shit. It’s just not worth trying to do that,” Golovkin said.
“That’s simple,” Teddy Atlas said. “I think in any language, that translates pretty directly and clearly. I would like to ask Gennadiy, since Ken brought it up, is there any testing in this camp for PEDS for VADA or any of the agencies?
“Of course there is evidence, and I will speak for myself and my camp. I’ve been doing this test for God knows how many fights, and I don’t know how many times they did all the tests,” Golovkin said.
“There are no disputes, arguments or questions about whether Gennadiy Golovkin is clean,” Atlas said. “We’re not going to make a big deal out of it, but we had to ask the question.
“There has been a dispute, as Ken correctly mentioned about Canelo, that he is always clean. He also wanted to ask, are you in a relationship?
“I’m just curious about Bivol, and if so, then my question would be, have you talked to him?” Atlas said.
“We don’t have a relationship. We don’t talk or discuss things,” Golovkin said of Bivol. “We, of course, know each other, and I remember when we received a phone call from his manager Vadim Kornilov.
“Dmitry was next to Vadim and he reminded us that he met me in 1997 during one of the boxing tournaments in his home country Kyrgyzstan. So that’s how long we’ve known each other,” Golovkin said.
“Obviously I knew they knew each other from where they came from and obviously from their amateur background,” Atlas said.
“So that’s why I asked the question because I was curious as we knew each other and had that experience of being familiar.”
“I think from the way Gennadiy smiles, he knows him very well. I know they both train at Churchill too, so I imagine they know each other very well,” Rideout said.
“No, of course, and that’s why I asked the question. Just if they had talked, that’s all,” Atlas said of whether Golovkin knew Bivol well.
“Unfortunately not yet, but I hope we communicate more after my fight and his fight,” Golovkin said. “I know that he is moving to the United States; he is moving his family from him. So, I think we’ll have some things to talk about.”
“One of those things I can tell you right now when he calls you after this fight to congratulate you on your win,” Atlas said.
“Right, that would be great. It is always a pleasure to talk to people who really know their profession, their craft and are very interesting because of it,” Golovkin said.
“I just want to say end this unless Ken has something else. I just want to thank you guys for taking your time at his camp, during his camp, to talk to us and come to our show,” Atlas said.
“I want to tell you the same thing. It’s always nice to talk to not only a great fighter and a great athlete, but also a great gentleman. A person who knows how to behave outside the ring as he does inside the ring. Always behaving like a champion.
“Thank you, and thank you for all the fans and from all of us,” Atlas said.
“It is a great pleasure talking to all of you. Thank you very much,” Golovkin said.
“Thank you for doing this,” Rideout said. “Thanks to Fred for organizing and to all the fans. Thanks for being with us.
“Gennadiy, one of the things I like most about you is seeing you enter the ring in that beautiful Kazakh robe. I’m going to talk to Fred about how he can get me one too,” Rideout said.
“Thanks a lot guys. Anytime,” Golovkin said.
“Best of luck, Gennadiy,” Atlas said.
