By Sean Jones: Gennadiy Golovkin thinks Canelo Alvarez is out of touch with reality because of the way he threw his hands up in what he thought was a win in his last fight against Dmitry Bivol last May.
Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) will challenge Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) for his undisputed super middleweight title this coming Saturday night, September 17 on DAZN PPV at T-Mobile Arena. from Las Vegas.
As far as Golovkin was concerned, there was no question that Bivol, the WBA light heavyweight champion, defeated Canelo in that fight. He feels that Canelo believes the world revolves around him.
Golovkin, like many people, wonders why it took so long for Canelo to fight him again.
On the one hand, Canelo criticizes the opposition he has competed against in the last four years since their rematch, and yet he is not fighting the dangerous guys at 168 and 175.
Golovkin points out that Canelo chose not to fight David Benavidez at 168 or Artur Beterbiev at 175, which says a lot about him.
To be sure, Golovkin hasn’t been fighting killers at 160 in the last four years, but neither has Canelo, with the exception of his fight against Bivol, which he lost.
Golovkin says that if he wins this fight, there could be a rematch with Canelo. If not, he says that he has other business ventures which he will talk about later.
With Canelo’s history of winning controversial decisions, Golovkin may need to outplay him like Bivol did for him to get a win if he can’t knock him out.
It would have been better if the trilogy fight had taken place in a neutral venue, but Canelo is the A-side. He is the one calling the shots for the fight and naturally he wasn’t going to take any chances by having the third fight with GGG in a neutral place.
“A lot of people ask this question and a lot of people don’t understand. I guess it’s just his position, and he’s saying, ‘You said something.’ I don’t talk about him at all,” Gennadiy Golovkin told Clobberin’ Time when asked why Canelo Alvarez thinks he doesn’t like her.
“What I said were just facts. He likes it when people say flattering things. That is different. I think if someone is truthful and honest, it should be taken as a compliment.
“Maybe it’s their strategy to blame me and call me ‘two-faced’ instead. I know I’m not. We all know there was a verdict from an official organization, and everything that was said was just the facts,” Golovkin said, apparently alluding to Canelo’s positive clenbuterol test.
“We all know what happened, how he avoided this fight and that he went to court,” Golovkin said reacting to Canelo by saying that he has fought better opponents than him in the last four years.
“We had a rematch clause and he broke the contract,” Golovkin said. “If he said he had the toughest fighters if we look at those weight divisions if we look at 168, why not? [David] Benavidez? If we look at 175, why not? [Artur] Beterbiev?
“So again, he’s a bit of a hypocrite, I’d say all his cunning, and I think we need to learn by now, whatever he says, it’s not always true.
“I don’t know what he’s saying, and I don’t want to speak for him. We saw his behavior at the press conferences. We saw him raise his arms after his last fight [against Dmitry Bivol]probably believing he won.
“It only shows that he is not in touch with reality and that he is spinning in his own world.
“Unifying 168 would be amazing,” Golovkin said. It motivates me more as an athlete, I would say,” Golovkin said about him becoming the undisputed super middleweight champion if he beats Canelo.
“For Canelo, like I said, giving up a loss, that would be good too, of course. For me, it’s not personal. It’s just another fight in my career. So that would be just a nice bonus.
“At the same time, if we look at his last fight, Bivol won and it didn’t change Bivol much. It was just a huge advantage for Bivol to win that fight.
“I am very happy with how I feel right now. I feel very good, and that is part of my career. Train hard to give everything I have in me to be as dedicated as possible.
“The only difference would probably be how I approach this and how I envision it,” Golovkin said of going from 160 to 168 for the Canelo trilogy.
“For me to do 160, that wasn’t easy at times either. I would wear a weight loss suit for a couple of days to lose extra water. This time it probably, probably won’t be necessary.
“The last two or three days will probably be different. Well, this time there are no excuses. I’m really happy with those fights [Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Gabriel Rosato] despite how I felt then, and I’m happy with the result.
“It was wins both times, and at the same time, I don’t want to make excuses. I am happy with the way I feel now. I am working according to our plan. There are certain nuances, of course, but overall, I’m very happy with my current condition.
“First of all, I don’t want to disparage our first two fights. [with Canelo]. They were both exciting and fascinating fights, and they went into the story and stuff.
“I hope that our third fight will go down in history as an exciting fight and at the same time the third fight should not erase the first two, the result and the actual fights.
“Of course, I hope to win the third fight, and the judges will not be able to affect the situation. I expect the judges to be honest and fair. I can only wait. So, we’ll see how it’s going to go.
“I wouldn’t compare the Marquez-Pacquiao rivalry and ours. The only thing that would be similar is that they were great fights that went down in history. I hope that our fights, all the fights, are great and as historic as that.
“It’s hard for me to say. I don’t know what he does during training right now. I don’t know how he feels,” Golovkin said when told that Canelo’s punch production has been dropping steadily in his last handful of fights.
“I would say that 175 was probably a difficult weight class for him, and his training approach had certain flaws that led to those results. It is a question for him. What excuses is he going to find himself and how is he going to get out of it this time?
“The numbers speak for themselves. Speaking of our fights, this weight class is more comfortable for him and, moreover, he thinks it’s personal. I would say, and it’s for both of us, let’s push the gas all the way and get into it.
“I think I’ve had an excellent career. I’ve had a lot of accomplishments and I’m very happy with my legacy,” Golovkin said when told if he plans to retire after the Canelo trilogy.
“I’m in the Guinness Book of Records for the most knockouts in the middleweight division, and the most title defenses. I have some plans, good plans, interesting plans after this fight.
“Let’s discuss them later because in this fight, there could be a rematch or something. This question is for later,” Golovkin said.
