Gennady Golovkin vs. Saul "Canelo" Alvarez
The recent pay-per-view bout between Floyd Mayweather and MMA fighter Conor McGregor was for the general sports fan. Saturday's pay-per-view bout between Gennady Golovkin and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez is strictly for the boxing loyalists. This is a fight that boxing heads have been waiting a few years for and its finally here. Golovkin and Alvarez are both ranked in the top 10 pound-for-pound rankings and both have a string of highlight reel knockouts that have captivated fans. Saturday's fight is scheduled to go 12 rounds from the middleweight division and Golovkin's WBC, WBA, and IBF titles will all be on the line. While Golovkin has spent his entire career fighting as a middleweight, Alvarez will be moving up from the junior middleweight division, although his most recent fight was at a catchweight of 164 pounds. The old saying goes that styles make fights and if that rings true this fight could be spectacular.
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| GGG landing a rippling body shot on Jacobs |
Outside of the ring Golovkin has a boyish charm that has made him a fan favorite. His demeanor inside the ring isn't so charming though, at least not to his opponents who take the brunt of his punishment. Golovkin is an orthodox fighter who is a devastating puncher and one of the heaviest hitters in the sport. Yet he isn't just a powerful slugger, he also has plenty of boxing skills that make his freakish power even scarier. Golovkin does an excellent job of cutting off the ring and keeping opponents where he wants them. He can pick them apart with his powerful jab or finish them with his power punches. Those power punches come in the form of a strong right hand and a lights out left hook. His right hand usually goes upstairs and can end a fight but its the left hook that is truly his best weapon. Golovkin has finished opponents with left hooks upstairs and to the body and it isn't often that a fighter makes it to the final bell still standing against him. In his entire career only four opponents have finished standing, although none heave been able to beat him. Defensively "GGG" isn't great and does eat his fair share of clean punches, especially upstairs. However, he insists that often times he lets opponents hit him because he knows they can't hurt him and he wants to give fans a good show. How true that is remains to be seen but in his last fight he did face Daniel Jacobs who is a huge puncher himself and Golvokin took everything he dished out.
Golovkin's career began in obscurity with 17 of his first 18 career fights taking place in Germany. Although his career started in 2006 he didn't fight in the U.S. for the first time until 2012 where he instantly began to make a name for himself with impressive knockouts. Since his U.S. debut in 2012 "GGG" has gone 14-0 with 13 stoppages and his career record is a perfect 37-0 with an outstanding 33 knockouts. Among his victims are Jacobs, Kell Brook, David Lemieux, Daniel Geale and others and he never fails to impress. His last fight against Jacobs did go the distance and while Golovkin wasn't his dominate self he was facing a fellow big puncher who had serious height and weight advantages. Golovkin, who is now 35 years old, has been waiting a few years for a big money fight and he now seems poised and ready for the biggest fight of his career against Alvarez.
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| Alvarez attacking the body of Chavez Jr. |
If they were dancing it would be Golovkin doing the leading. Alvarez doesn't mind letting his opponent be the aggressive one because he has become one of the better counter punchers in all of boxing. Like his opponent on Saturday night Alvarez is an orthodox fighter who works behind a very stiff jab. His right hand can do damage whether he throws it straight or over the top but his best punch is definitely his left hook. Like many Mexican pugilists Alvarez loves to attack the body and his left hook to the liver might be his beast weapon. Timing is also an important part of Alvarez's attack and his perfectly timed counter punches upstairs have resulted in some incredible knockouts. While he doesn't have very fast feet he doesn't really need to. Alvarez loves to fight on the inside and he has shown a tremendous chin throughout his career. That chin will face the toughest test of it's career though against a monster puncher like Golovkin.
Despite being eight years younger than Golovkin, "Canelo" actually began his career one year prior to Golovkin. In 2005 Alvarez started his career as a young man and his risen in the ranks and matured in front of millions of fans. Around 2010 is really when "Canelo" started to build his name and victories over fighters like Shane Mosley and Austin Trout helped land him a fight against Floyd Mayweather, at the time the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. Alvarez was really taken to school and easily beaten in that fight but he seemed to learn a lot from his first career loss and has only gotten better since. That loss came in 2013 and since than he has gone 7-0 with four stoppages and among his victims were top fighters like Erislandy Lara, Miguel Cotto, and Amir Khan and his career record is a near perfect 49-1-1 with a strong 34 knockouts. While the fight against Mayweather was definitely the biggest of Alvarez's career he also had a huge fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. so he will be ready for the big stage once again against Golovkin.
If styles truly do make fights than this fight should be a great one because the styles of Golovkin and Alvarez match up perfectly. Golovkin loves to play the role of aggressor and will come forward behind his stiff jab as he looks to land his power punches. Meanwhile, Alvarez will probably spend plenty of time against the ropes, setting traps for the aggressive Golovkin as he looks to set up powerful counter punches. Some have criticized Golovkin's recent performances but often an elite fighter who can't get another big name in the ring with him has a hard time getting up for fighters he doesn't deem to be at his level. Alvarez, for his part, looks larger than normal muscle-wise for this fight and there is a chance he may have over trained. Still, if all goes as planned this should be an excellent fight that could easily go either way. Golovkin can't get overly aggressive and fall into Alvarez's traps and Alvarez can be too patient and put himself in a hole. These are two of the best fighters in the sport and both seem to want to seize the moment and whoever does will become a legend.
PREDICTION: If this isn't a true 50/50 fight its certainly close. Gennady Golovkin is the bigger puncher but their skills are fairly even and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez is a fantastic counter puncher and counter punchers love aggressive fighters. Alvarez will give a great account of himself, setting traps and timing Golovkin well. He will land clean upstairs and to the body enough to put a hurting on Golovkin but it won't be enough to win. This is truly the apex of Golovkin's career and his jab, skills, and unreal power will all come together in a career defining performance as he stops Alvarez in the 11th round.
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