By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez’s chronically poor stamina reared its ugly head last night, resulting in him barely surviving a 12-round unanimous decision win over Gennadiy Golovkin in their trilogy fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. .
After the fight, Canelo blamed his exhaustion on not being able to train hard enough in camp due to his left hand problem. It seemed to me that Canelo just gassed like he always does.
The only reason he took it until the eighth round is because Golovkin was fighting at a glacial pace, playing it safe on the outside. Canelo actually looked worse than he did in his previous fight against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol.
Golovkin looked like a fossil and much, much older than his chronological age of 40. There are no words. What happened to the guy in the last four years since he fought Canelo in 2018? Not only did Golovkin lose much of his hair, but the aggressiveness he once had is now completely gone.
Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) should feel lucky because if Golovkin had been the same fighter he was in 2017 and 2018, he would have blown the shell off the Mexican star. Canelo seemed almost as old as Golovkin and so weak that he was beyond comprehension.
The reflexes and punching accuracy that Canelo once had during the zenith of his career are now completely gone. He looked like he was punching with his eyes closed, as he repeatedly missed the old-looking Golovkin.
After this fight, Canelo needs to rethink the idea of fighting Dmitry Bivol because he has no chance of beating the talented WBA 175-pound champion. If you are Eddie Hearn, you need to sit Canelo down and talk him out of the idea of mixing with Bivol again.
Hearn needs to focus on guiding Canelo into strictly soft opposition to prevent his career from immediately imploding once he starts fighting quality opposition.
The way Canelo is fighting right now, there are plenty of contenders in the 168-pound division who will beat him. You can also add two or three middleweights who would beat him as well. We’re talking about guys like Chris Eubank Jr, Jermall Charlo and Janibek Alimkhanuly. Those three would make Canelo’s shell job easy.
“It’s a great satisfaction to win despite all the problems I had,” said Canelo Alvarez at the post-fight press conference after beating Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin. “I wanted to get the KO, but it didn’t come because he is a great fighter.
“I was able to show, and that is why there are 12 rounds in a fight, so you can show who is the best. I am very happy with what I have done tonight. With my problems in hand, I out jabbed the best jabber in the world in Gennadiy Golovkin.
“I respect him as a fighter. As a person, I don’t know. I don’t want to put it on that level because I consider myself a good person. I say, ‘I’m glad to share the ring with you.
“We give people three good fights.” I am happy to share the ring with him to have these three fights that are going to go down in boxing history,” Canelo said.
