September 15, 2022; Las Vegas, Nevada, United States; Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennadiy “GGG” Golovkin square off after the final press conference for the September 17, 2022 Matchroom Boxing card in Las Vegas, NV. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom.
LAS VEGAS — It is somewhat overlooked that Gennadiy Golovkin’s extensive amateur career includes a multitude of fights at 165.5 pounds, very close to the 168-pound limit.
So the difference in weight making his pro super middleweight debut Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena on DAZN shouldn’t be an issue.
Facing the steamy and highly motivated super middleweight world champion Saul Alvarez will be.
Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs) knows he may bear the brunt of Alvarez’s loss to WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol in May. If Alvarez beats Bivol, he mentioned the possibility of moving up to even higher weights to challenge world heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk for his IBF, WBA, WBO and Ring belts, or possibly jumping to cruiserweight to face to WBC champion Ilunga Makabu.
“And even now, he continues to say that he is ready to accept any challenge, that he is not afraid,” Golovkin said Tuesday at a conclave with a small group of reporters. “Maybe he just wants to save face. But at the same time, we see that what he said during the press conferences showed that he did not take Dmitry Bivol and that fight seriously. So I think he drew his conclusions that this loss brought him back to Earth. And as a result, he will change.
“He probably lost touch with reality and believed he was invincible.”
Golovkin faces a series of obstacles. For one, he is 40 years old. Alvarez (57-2-2, 39 KOs) is 32 years old and in the prime of his career, and he is The Ring’s No. 5 pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Second, Alvarez had become a much more complete fighter after his opening loss to Floyd Mayweather in September 2013, and he has openly stated that he has learned more since his unanimous decision setback to Bivol.
Álvarez became the first boxer to unify all four super middleweight titles. He is not willing to give them up. The fans wanted to see the rivalry end with this trilogy.
Alvarez is more than happy to oblige.
“Look, I’m happy to be involved in this fight because everyone wants to see this fight,” he said. “I think I am the best boxer in the world because nobody does what I do in boxing. No one takes risks like me, and I don’t need to take risks, please. But I love a challenge, and that’s it. And I feel like I’m still the best.
“I just want to punish him very hard. So that’s the only thing going on in my mind. And I’m very close to doing it.”
Against a 40-year-old with diminished abilities since the last time these two fought, it could happen.
Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who has been working for Ring Magazine/RingTV.com since October 1997 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. You can follow him on twitter @JSantoliquito [twitter.com].
