By: Hans Themistode
According to Canelo Alvarez, the timing is all wrong for Gennadiy Golovkin.
For years now, the long-standing middleweight champion has dished out beating after cruel beating. Marred faces after brutal combinations, along with bloody knockout wins are spewed across Golovkin’s career highlight reels.
Having shared the ring with him on two occasions, Alvarez (54-1-2, 36 KOs) knows good and well just how dangerous Golovkin is. Or, at least was.
With back to back contests taking place in 2017 and 2018 respectively, Alvarez doesn’t view Golovkin in the same light as he once did. Pair those thoughts with the pound for pound star coming into his own, leads him to believe that only one detrimental outcome will occur should they face off one final time.
“I feel like I’m at my peak,” said Alvarez during a recent interview with Ring Magazine. ” If it happens a third time, I feel so good that I could most likely knock him out and do some serious damage.”
For the Mexican superstar, he’s seemingly put Golovkin in his rearview mirror. Immediately following his 2018 win over him, Alvarez has jumped from weight class to weight class.
In December of 2018, Alvarez bulldozed Rocky Fielding via third round stoppage in his first bout at super middleweight. From there, he made one last cameo at middleweight, defeating Daniel Jacobs before stopping Sergey Kovalev in his lone appearance at light heavyweight. Now, the 30-year-old Alvarez has settled in at super middleweight, capturing the WBA/Ring magazine titles from Callum Smith in a one-sided performance just a few weeks ago.
As for Golovkin, he’s gone on to win three straight. The Kazakhstan product took care of business against Steve Rolls mid 2019. He then followed that up with a close decision victory over Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
Most recently, Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) took on mandatory challenger Kamil Szeremeta. As expected, Golovkin handed him a beating of a lifetime, dropping his virtually unknown opponent four times before the referee mercifully ended the onslaught in the seventh.
With the win, rumors of the two facing each other for a third time began circulating. But while the hand of Alvarez was raised in their second contest, their first encounter ended in a controversial draw. With that said, the pound for pound star could care less what the official outcome was. To Alvarez, their rivalry was one-sided.
“I don’t have to prove anything to anyone,” said Alvarez. “I did my job already by beating him twice.”