Oscar DLH Says Canelo-GGG II is a No-Go and That’s Fine With Me

According to Oscar De La Hoya, the promoter of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, negotiations for the rematch between Alvarez and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin have collapsed and he is now targeting Daniel Jacobs for Canelo’s next fight. And that’s fine with me. I hope we never see a Canelo-Golovkin rematch!

To refresh your memory, Golovkin 37-0-1 (33) and Alvarez 49-1-1 (34) met in September of last year and the fight ended in a controversial split draw with one judge seeing it for Golovkin 115-113, the second for Canelo 118-110 with the deciding tally being 114-114. The decision was met with a chorus of boos. Most of the fans that attended the fight and those that watched it on PPV saw it for Golovkin. (I saw it for GGG with him winning at least eight of the 12 rounds with the worst case scenario being maybe it was seven rounds, but — make no mistake! — Golovkin beat Canelo on the night of September 16th, 2017.)

Due to the controversy, they signed to meet again on May 5th, 2018. Only the fight was cancelled and Canelo was suspended for six months due to him testing positive for the banned substance Clenbuterol. With Canelo’s suspension ending in August, boxing fans are frothing at the mouth to see them fighting again, something I’m totally confounded by, especially with strong challengers out there for both of them, the likes of which include Jacobs (34-2, 29), WBO titlist Billy Joe Saunders 26-0 (12), Jermall Charlo 27-0 (21), Sergiy Derevyanchenko 12-0 (10) and Demetrius Andrade 25-0 (16). But no, the earth will be out of balance and we’ll miss the next Super Nova if Canelo and GGG don’t fight a rematch.

Personally, I’d much rather see Canelo fight Charlo and Golovkin fight Saunders, or another pairing, but please, I’ve had my fill of both GGG and Canelo and won’t be fazed a bit if they never touch gloves again.

For starters, GGG has definitely lost a step. He showed the versatility of a steamroller on sand against Canelo and yet still managed to get the best of it. Furthermore, GGG has faced the weakest opposition as middleweight champ since I’ve been cognizant of boxing circa 1964-65 and would like to see him fight some legit middleweight contenders. The fact that The Ring magazine has Golovkin ranked as boxing’s top pound for pound fighter is a joke in my opinion. I saw him beat Canelo; now I want to see if he can beat a young lion like Charlo or an elusive boxer like Saunders before he really starts to slide as a fighter.

As for Canelo, I don’t need for him to carve his legacy off of beating an eroded GGG. How about fighting a good boxer like Saunders to see if he learned anything since he fought Mayweather? Watching at home, I thought he lost every minute of the 36 minutes that he and Floyd fought.  Another interesting match would be Canelo against a strong and moderately versatile Jacobs.

The smart move for Canelo, for obvious reasons, is a rematch with Golovkin (which may well still happen as De La Hoya may be bluffing).

One of the reasons it’s the obvious way to go is that the market has already been conditioned that the pairing of them is all that matters – so it’s sure to do big numbers again. In addition, Canelo was taking advantage of GGG’s aggression as their fight last September was winding down. He won the last three rounds on all three official scorecards. If they meet again, GGG will not be what he was the last time and Canelo will be more confident and more experienced handling his one dimensional style, on top of knowing without a doubt that he can stand up to his Sunday punch. Conversely, as clearly as GGG won the first bout, he never had Canelo close to going down or out….so all he can hope to do is bring more of what couldn’t get him across the finish line the last time, at least not in the eyes of those who mattered.

I said prior to the fight that if GGG didn’t win he’d never hold a win over Canelo on his record – and I stand by that. Seeing how the last bout was scored, we know GGG cannot win a decision over Canelo, and I have no doubt Alvarez would be more competitive in a rematch…meaning Golovkin can only win by stoppage, and without getting lucky I don’t believe that’s plausible.

The fixation that boxing fans have on seeing the Canelo-GGG rematch is similar to what happened with Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. After five years of being told by Floyd and Manny that a fight between them was the only fight that mattered in combat sports, it became a reality on May 2nd 2015. When it became official, boxing fans were ecstatic and bought it in record numbers. And in return they were gouged financially for what has to go down as one of the least drama-filled big fights in boxing history, one that ended via the most predictable result imaginable……Mayweather by unanimous decision. And now there’s another blockbuster fight that is sucking the life out of boxing nearly to the same degree, only this time it’s worse simply because Canelo and Golovkin have already fought, so we know what a clash between them looks like and there’s no intrigue left!

Let’s find out if GGG and Canelo can handle the other elite middleweights instead building a legacy off of fighting each other. Because if there is a rematch, Canelo will win it and that’ll set up the third fight and the younger and still fresh Canelo will handle the aging in dog years by then Golovkin even easier.

Oscar De La Hoya believed that he had GGG at his mercy because, as he has continually repeated, his fighter is the A-side. That’s something else we can pin on Oscar from when he fought. Like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson paved the way for Michael Jordan……..De La Hoya paved the way for Mayweather regarding the A-side and the B-side. This adds nothing to boxing other than holding up the fights that boxing fans most want to see!

The middleweight division is brimming with young talent and if Canelo and Golovkin have a rematch they will have a choke hold on the division for the next year. I’m over Canelo-Golovkin and hope they never fight a second time!

Frank Lotierzo can be contacted at GlovedFist@Gmail.com

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