After months of back-and-forth accusations, insults, and name-calling, Middleweight greats Gennady Golovkin and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will look to finally settle their score TONIGHT (Sat., Sept. 15, 2018) inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, having gone to an extremely controversial draw in 2017.
MMAmania will deliver LIVE coverage of “Canelo vs. GGG 2” tonight, starting with the HBO pay-per-view (PPV) broadcast at 8 p.m. ET. We’ll also be sharing a live stream of the untelevised undercard, which begins at 6 p.m. ET.
The card will likewise feature rising star and WBO Super Welterweight champ Jaime Munguia against Brandon Cook, David Lemieux against Spike O’Sullivan in a Middleweight slugfest, and Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez looking to revive his career opposite former title challenger Moises Fuentes. I tried to be poetic about the last fight, which truly felt like a special occasion, but after the delays, trash talk, performance-enhancing drug (PED) shenanigans, it’s hard to muster up the same enthusiasm.
So let’s just go the more traditional route:
Name: Gennady “GGG” Golovkin
Age: 36
Record: 38-0-1, 34 KO
Last Five Fights: Vanes Martirosyan (KO-2) Canelo Alvarez (Split Draw), Daniel Jacobs (UD), Kell Brook (TKO-5), Dominic Wade (KO-2)
Significant Victories (other than those mentioned above): David Lemieux, Curtis Stevens, Matthew Macklin, Grzegorz Proksa
Name: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez
Age: 28
Record: 49-1-2, 34 KO
Last Five Fights: Gennady Golovkin (Split Draw), Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (UD), Liam Smith (KO-9), Amir Khan (KO-6), Miguel Cotto (UD)
Significant Victories (other than those mentioned above): Erislandy Lara, Austin Trout
THE FIGHT
First off: Golovkin absolutely deserved the win the first time out. Though Alvarez found success in bursts, Golovkin’s relentless jab controlled the middle rounds by a fair margin. The 114-114 scorecard (see it) stretched the limits of believability, while Adalaide Byrd’s 118-110 Canelo score was among the worst in recent memory.
That may not sound too egregious, but this being boxing, there are plenty of horrific cards in recent memories to compare it to.
Despite the judging shenanigans and Golovkin being a year closer to 40 this time, I’m confident he earns the win this time for two specific reasons. The first is that he came into the first fight with a questionable gameplan, while Canelo executed a very good one, and still should have come out on top.
The most bizarre thing about that first fight was Golovkin’s reticence to go to the body. He’s flattened multiple opponents by punishing their midsections and his body attack is a critical part of his ring-cutting. Canelo, on the other hand, did an excellent job of stymieing Golovkin’s bigger punches and landing consistent shots to the body. Despite this, Golovkin’s jab still won him the day, and with the experience of that first fight behind him, I expect to see a much more effective plan of attack.
Canelo will have that experience as well, but he already fought up to the best of his abilities the first time and it wasn’t enough.
The other key reason is that Canelo, despite connecting with some truly spectacular shots, never managed to even faze “GGG.” At one point, he landed a sweeping right hand that looked among the hardest blows he’s ever thrown and it had absolutely zero effect. Golovkin enters this fight knowing that Canelo cannot hurt him, which should translate to even greater offensive output.
Even if Canelo is one of the few who can withstand Golovkin’s hellacious power and stay on his feet, the Kazakh’s implacability and ramrod jab should be every bit as effective as they were before. Expect a more one-sided affair affair this time as Golovkin re-adds his wicked liver shot to his arsenal. One judge will probably still turn in an inexplicable card, this being boxing, but justice gets served this later evening.
Prediction: Golovkin via split decision
MMAmania will deliver LIVE coverage of “Golovkin vs. Canelo 2,” starting with the HBO Boxing PPV broadcast at 8 p.m. ET. Remember, you can also watch a live stream of the undercard on MMAmania.com starting at 6 p.m.