Make no mistake about it, the fight that should be set to take place is Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin for the undisputed middleweight championship of the world. The operative word in there is “should”, and if all things pan out the right way during negotiations that are still in the initial stages as of this writing, then we’ll see that blockbuster match-up this fall.
If you watch the attached video, then the balls are in the court of trainer Abel Sanchez and the Golovkin brain trust to make it happen. But this was coming from the perspective of an emotionally charged fighter who had just scored an electrifying one-punch KO of Amir Khan in the sixth round at brand new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
He might have been ready to face Captain America on the podium after annihilating Khan. But putting hubris aside and dealing with things realistically, we cannot simply dismiss a lot of what was said and done before May 7. There was Canelo, telling the media that GGG needs to ‘build himself up more’ and to ‘look at who I’m fighting and who he’s fighting’. Then there was Jose Reynoso, lead trainer for Canelo, who was very vocal during fight week about GGG not being the next option for his fighter, despite telling us that Golovkin is ‘an easy fight- all he does is come forward’. The dismissing of Golovkin was arrogant, despite the mandate given to Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and Team Canelo to make the fight with Triple G happen months ago.
Both fighters have now won step aside matches until presumably facing each other, and they now have roughly 11 days remaining to get a deal done before the WBC pulls the plug on Canelo’s ridiculous stint as WBC middleweight champion. Despite the tough talk coming from Canelo and Oscar’s, well, Oscar winning performance during the post fight press conference– in which he baited and called out Team Golovkin, there doesn’t reeeeeally seem to be a commitment to fighting GGG.
For starters. Abel Sanchez and Golovkin basically created a media event of there own in T-Mobile Arena following Canelo’s demolition of Khan, with Sanchez beyond adamant that they will not fight. With that in mind, what would make someone like Alvarez give up his WBC belt and discard the notion of fighting Golovkin?
Enter Senator Manny Pacquiao from the Philippines.
As you’ll recall, Pac “retired” last month after after running roughshod over a very strong Timothy Bradley on April 9 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas via 12 round unanimous decision. It was the kind of performance that demonstrated Pacquiao’s still incredible hand and foot speed, in addition to flashes of his once fearsome power. A bona-fide “A” fighter who remains a global superstar, the Alvarez cognoscenti knows that pairing the wildly popular Mexican icon with the Filipino legend would be box office gold. and with a victory, would unquestionably make him the world’s #1 boxing attraction.
It is still too early to tell whether or not Oscar De La Hoya (who’s basically the new Bob Arum, having had numerous “sit downs” with Don Bob over the last year or so) will come to an agreement and give us the fight that boxing needs (Canelo vs. GGG), or the one he needs (Canelo vs. Pacquiao). Don’t think for one minute that numbers won’t influence his decision (a Pacquiao fight would challenge May/Canelo in volume), or, that the chance for a little payback hasn’t crossed his mind either, as Pacquiao thoroughly abused him into retirement.
This is the fight that was immediately presented to Manny Pacquiao and Bob Arum about an hour after Pac beat Timothy Bradley last month, and explains Manny’s reluctance in committing to retirement. He’ll deny it, but Oscar De La Hoya made that call. He avoided the question almost entirely at the post fight press conference the other day. If anything, he did it to establish leverage during what is now said to be extremely difficult negotiations with Gennady Golovkin and his representatives. For Pacquiao to fight and attempt to be successful against Canelo, he would need for Alvarez to be the same emaciated 152 lbs as he was against Mayweather.
Roach dropped a lot of details on this with EsNewsReporting.com the other day, and weight would definitely be the main factor in this bout taking place. Its said that Canelo rehydrated to as much as 180 lbs for Khan, and that didn’t seem to be true based on an up close eye test. Canelo looked to be around 170 lbs on fight night for Khan, and assuming he’s that (or roughly the same), this is doable for Pacquiao. Donald Trump would probably have an affair with Hilary Clinton before Team Canelo agreed to a 165 lb re-hydration clause Freddie wants. It ain’t happening.
But what would happen after Pacquiao and Canelo touched gloves in the middle of the ring and returned to their corners before the sound of the bell?
Lights… Cameras… DING, DING, DING!!!
PACQUIAO VS. CANELO: A TALE OF THE TAPE
Its a little difficult to gauge just how good Canelo was the other night against Khan, because I didn’t think that outcome was really all that difficult to predict. Going in, the feeling was Khan would give Alvarez problems with his overall speed and athleticism, and that’s exactly what happened.
But Khan is a fighter that, despite his posturing and almost regal regard for himself, is somewhat weak in the mind and has fundamental errors embedded stylistically. His chin will be there to see like a lantern in a storm, which is why Alvarez eventually punched his lights out. But he’d face something really different with Pacquiao and encounter even more difficulty for a longer period of time.
Khan is a classic rhythm fighter that can’t offer as much variety as Pacquiao can and would. He gets lower to the canvas, bounces around the ring in very unorthodox patterns and has the most unique shot-making ability that the game has ever seen. Having seen Alvarez in there with the likes of Austin Trout, Erislandy Lara and now Khan, Freddie Roach would know that movement and volume would give the still somewhat flat-footed Alvarez fits and cause him to lose rounds. But the problem is, there’s 12 of them, which means there’s a major problem.
This fight, to me, is a different kind of Manny Pacquiao vs. Brandon Rios, with the assumption that the Rios in this case is Canelo and three years better, while Pacquiao is simply three years older. A 34-year old Pac offered a very athletic performance against Rios and he’d be hard-pressed to match that against Canelo. In fact, Floyd Mayweather would’ve had a much more difficult assignment against the Alvarez we saw the other night.
Manny would have a spectacular training camp and be as ready as he could be. To the eye, he’d look no different than he did for Miguel Cotto in 2009- but his body would know that this is 2016, and we cannot forget what happened in November 2010. I will always be of the opinion that Pacquiao’s mauling of what was a super middleweight Antonio Margarito, robbed him physically. Since that fight, the Pacquiao that we all knew vanished and hasn’t really been seen again.
A mistake many fans will make regarding their favorite athletes is that they’ll remember who they were, while forgetting who they are. Six years ago, Margarito was a somewhat shopworn 32 years-old and still very strong. As dominant as Pacquiao was, he was badly beaten up during that fight, its just that not many noticed it. Canelo would be very much in his prime at 26, an explosive combination puncher with every shot in the book, and a fighter in possession of vastly underrated technical skills.
He also has shocking one-punch KO ability (as we just witnessed against a smaller fighter, plus we can’t forget Pac has been on the other end of this himself) against opposition much bigger than Pac. The left hook he cleaned up Carlos Baldomir with will always leave an impression. Canelo would get chipped up a lot by Pacquiao over the course of this bout, and Pac’s volume and feet would get him about five rounds. But Canelo would probably time Pac with a bomb to drop him once or twice on the way to a clear unanimous decision.
