By: Ste Rowen
The rematch boxing fans have been waiting for has finally been announced, and for reasons I don’t quite understand, it was Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson who had the honour of letting the boxing world know that 2018 was continuing where 2017 had left off. Golovkin vs ‘Canelo’ Alvarez will take place on Cinco de Mayo weekend, with the venue yet to be confirmed.
The rematch announcement was certainly an upgrade on the first fight’s, where Alvarez treated us to 12 rounds of pointlessness – beating up Julio Cesar Chavez Jr – before WBA, WBC & IBF champion, GGG joined the Ring middleweight belt-holder between the ropes, and gave the fans what they were all really there for.
Hype subsequently ensued back in the summer of 2017, followed by controversy when in September, the two pound-for-pound fighters collided in Vegas. The fight didn’t disappoint but then again, neither did the consistency with which big fights involving the Mexican somehow end up favouring him.
Judge, Adalaide Byrd, just like Levi Martinez (vs Lara) before her, C.J. Ross (vs Mayweather) before him and Stanley Christodoulou (vs Trout) before her, scored the fight heavily in favour of the Mexican with a scorecard of 118-110. In comparison to her two fellow judges, Dave Moretti and Don Trella who scored the fight 115-113 GGG and 114-114 respectively. If anything, Don Trella got off lightly.
It’s unfair to completely dismiss Saul Alvarez though. He contributed to the fight, firing off the higher quality combinations and more frequent body shots. However, one of the lasting images from GGG vs Canelo 1 will forever be a huge right-hand landing on the granite chin of Golovkin and the Kazakh, unflinchingly, continuing his attack.
The CompuBox numbers showed that Gennady out landed Canelo 218-169, landing more punches in 10 of the 12 rounds. But don’t take mine or CompuBox’s, or 54/69 pro boxer’s and writer’s word as gospel, watch and re-watch the fight. I wonder if Byrd has.
Another high-profile rematch takes place on the 5th May when Tony Bellew and David Haye step into the ring for their rescheduled second bout, so the more committed UK viewers should be in for a long, eventful night. At the time of writing Haye is not injured – Good news! 94 days still to go till fight night – Bad news.
In the GGGCanelo2 announcement clip, the Rock reassured fans, ‘I goddamn guarantee you, it aint gonna be another draw.’ But then again, Tyson Fury said Charles Martin would knockout Anthony Joshua, so I don’t know if I can really trust you Dwayne.
Let’s hope controversy isn’t the word of the day when the rematch comes around – Has anyone checked what Adalaide’s Cinco de Mayo plans are?
