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Although Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin first fought in 2017, the boxing world has been talking about them fighting for much longer than that. The two have been in each other’s orbit for more than eight years, first as “dream opponents” with Canelo, the biggest star, chasing Golovkin to acclaim, and Golovkin inversely desiring Canelo’s popularity, then as rivals in the ring and opponents in real life.
This Saturday, Canelo and GGG will meet for the third time at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV in an event broadcast on DAZN PPV. In all likelihood, it will be the last time they share the ring, but it certainly won’t be the end of the debate surrounding their fights or their respective legacies compared to one another. It is a trilogy that has given us controversy both inside and outside the ring to complement, up to this point, 24 rounds of the highest level of fighting that we have seen in this era.
Although it hasn’t always been this way, many trilogies are filled with personal animosity between the two combatants. A lot of things have to line up for a trilogy to happen in the first place. For one thing, the fights themselves have to be so exciting that the crowd is demanding encores, or the fights are competitive and inconclusive enough to warrant more between the same two fighters. On top of that, it has to make the most financial sense for the two of them to keep fighting each other, which is often the antithesis of seeking titles and riches, like repeating the same level over and over again. However, if they really don’t like each other, or at least have the taste of dissatisfaction with the results of previous matches or crowd reactions stuck in their jaws, sometimes that can replace everything. And when high-level fighters who are evenly matched really look down on each other, that’s a recipe for boxing at its best.
Canelo and GGG first negotiated a fight in 2015, though things were pretty cordial at the time. In effect, the camps agreed to take “intermediate bouts” before fighting each other, which they did, before the big reveal that Canelo-GGG would take place following Alvarez’s easy victory over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. The fight it was big enough that even Dodger Stadium reportedly made a bid for the fight, but T-Mobile was ultimately chosen as the venue, another constant in the fighters’ history together.
The first fight would solidify the dynamic of the rivalry, but also add elements of conspiracy that made, and continue to make, the discussion between the fighters’ respective fan bases consistently volatile. Álvarez and Golovkin battled to a split draw, with scores of 113–115, 114–114, and 118–110. The latter, a scorecard delivered by Adalaide Byrd, became the subject of universal anger in the boxing community. While many felt that Golovkin won the fight, some felt that a draw might have been at least justifiable. But Byrd’s lopsided scorecard in Canelo’s favor did him no favors. He led some to believe that as one of the biggest draws in the sport, Canelo received preferential treatment on the scorecards, citing CJ Ross’s scorecard during his loss to Floyd Mayweather and arguable scores against Erislandy Lara as evidence of that there was a pattern of favoritism.
To some, he described Canelo as the “establishment” and GGG as the champion of the people fighting to bring him down. For those who felt that way, what happened next would establish Canelo as a badass figure. Before a scheduled rematch, Canelo failed a random drug test and tested positive for clenbuterol. Subsequent explanations offered, such as the possibility that traces of clenbuterol may have been ingested by eating beef from Mexico, became a source of online ridicule.
It also provided something tangibly personal for the fighters to fight over. Golovkin to this day maintains that Canelo did not suffer the proper consequences and has called him a “bad person.”
Had Canelo lost the rematch, his career would have taken a completely different trajectory. Missteps can often be forgiven by the general public if you win. Canelo entered the rematch with a different game plan than he had in the first fight, employing a powerful counterpunching style. According to CompuBox stats in the second fight, Golovkin outscored Alvarez (234-202) overall and also outscored him (879-622). But Alvarez outscored GGG 143-116 on power shots. Judges Dave Moretti and Steve Weisfeld scored the fight 115-113, and third judge Glenn Fieldman scored it 114-114.
Some ringside observers also scored this fight for Golovkin, but the controversy was more muted, with a feeling that a decision in either direction was at least justifiable, unlike Byrd’s scorecard in the first fight.
After the fight, Canelo described it as “the happiest day of his life.” It was the materially most important moment of his life. Not long after, he signed a gargantuan $365 million deal with DAZN. That rush of cash and the publicity that surrounded it pushed Canelo to a different level of esteem from the sports public and the mainstream press. She instantly made her one of the richest athletes on the planet and allowed her to start a gas station business, a cell phone company and buy many horses and vehicles. But he also followed it up with a series of victories that reaffirmed his legacy, becoming the undisputed super middleweight champion and light heavyweight titleholder.
Had Canelo not lost to Dmitry Bivol last time, the third fight against Golovkin would have taken on a different feeling, one of inevitability. Before the Bivol loss, but also before GGG’s stoppage win over Ryota Murata, the assumption among many was that Canelo was too young, too fresh and too powerful to be handled by a 40-year-old version of Golovkin. But with one fighter coming off a loss and the other a knockout victory, there is at least one question on some people’s minds as to how the fight will play out.
The story of Canelo and GGG is particularly fascinating because even if the fights had been fought identically and had the same issues arisen outside the ring, if they had simply been scored or litigated differently, it would have changed not only the dynamic of their respective races. but perhaps the landscape of boxing in the 2020s entirely.
The pair of fights between the two have given us violence, drama and debate to enjoy indefinitely. The one thing it could never give us is finality at any time. Maybe we’ll get something on Saturday, just this once.
