Ever know a couple?or maybe you?re one-half of such a couple?that is just so awful for one another, yet they stay stuck to each other?
Ever know a couple?or maybe you?re one-half of such a couple?that is just so awful for one another, yet they stay stuck to each other? He cheats on her, she cheats on him, he poisons her cat, she burns his clothes. They vow to never get back together. They vow to be fully committed to moving on. Two weeks later, though, they?re back, living together and brewing new drama. For whatever emotional/psychological reason, they are drawn to the dysfunction and to the drama.
In boxing, Saul Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin are that couple.
In the case of Golovnelo, it?s not hard to understand what keeps drawing them together?it?s money. Fighting each other delivers a bigger payday than fighting anyone else. There?s some professional pride there, too, especially from the Canelo side of the coin, as he was pretty much shamed into taking the first fight and now has something to prove in the second, but this is really about money.
Of course it?s about money, right? It?s prizefighting?something that tends to be forgotten by some fans and media when a fighter like Golovkin plays to their desperate need to believe in the macho fairytales they tell themselves about boxing.
For Golovkin, fighting Canelo was always about the money and when the red-headed step-champion ventured up into Triple G?s middleweight turf, it was time to cash in with a fight that was not only a HUGE monetary score, but also a winnable bout against a fighter who had never fought a true middleweight before.
The young Mexican star was never really a middleweight, despite testing the waters for odd 155 lb. Caneloweight bouts, and went full middleweight just for a big-money fight with WBC middleweight titlist Miguel Cotto, who, himself, was just moonlighting at the higher weight. Canelo wanted the ego boost of a belt at 160 and the bragging point of being a two-division world champ.
But Golovkin became obsessed with a middleweight Canelo and his team (with the aid of his loyal Golovkinites and fawning media) set about forcing Canelo to stay put so their guy could get that big payday they had all been pining after.
If it was about ?big drama shows? or simply the drive to kick the baddest asses out there, the Kazakh KO machine could?ve gone up and met Andre Ward when Ward was still ready and willing to accept the challenge just one division higher than Golovkin. But Golovkin preferred to long after Canelo, as he had longed after an aged Sergio Martinez with two rickety knees in 2013 and then the undersized Cotto in 2015. And while lusting after what his people surely viewed as highly winnable paydays, he piled on soft touch paydays with full and complete impunity?18 world title romps in total?without anyone ever pointing out that not getting his two dream paydays probably shouldn?t have entitled him to a lifetime of tailor-made opposition.
But Golovkin is nothing if not bursting with entitlement. As I wrote over at my other gig:
?Looking over a career that has been remarkably hand-rigged and filled with a copious degree of entitlement, GGG rose to prominence fighting smaller men and those stylistically tailor-made to make him look good. A casual look at Golovkin?s r?sum? shows that of twenty ?world? title fights, at least ten have come against fighters moving up in weight from at least one division below and none?until Daniel Jacobs and Canelo Alvarez?have come against anyone with the physicality or skill level needed to even make Golovkin breathe hard.?
Saul Alvarez, meanwhile, also knows a thing or two about entitlement.
He was gifted the WBC junior middleweight title in 2011 when he was allowed to fight welterweight no-hoper Matthew Hatton for the 154 lb. title. The WBC, smelling money in the then-20-year-old, followed that with a free pass on five straight soft touch defenses.
To be fair, Alvarez did step things up with fights against tough and very difficult stylistic match-ups in Austin Trout and Erislandy Lara, as well as agreeing to terms with the much-avoided Paul Williams before Williams? career-ending motorcycle accident. During that run of integrity there was also Miguel Cotto and, of course, Floyd Mayweather. But that stretch of legitimate matchmaking didn?t last too long as an increasingly jaded Canelo willfully dove into shallow waters for bouts with welterweight Amir Khan, Liam Smith, and cash-starved underachiever Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Then, the two met?finally. Predictably, the bout was an overall disappointment as it became buried in whining and excuse-making from both sides of the great Golovnelo divide. The fight, itself, was solid and most people agreed with that?until the ?right? guy (i.e. ?their? guy) didn?t win. Nobody was happy with the draw and everybody blathered on about the injustice of a bout where, realistically, a draw was not an outrageous decision. But, damn it, they had chosen a ?side? and they were gonna keep fighting!
Canelo?s clenbuteral scandal has added even more fire to the dysfunction since then, fueling both sides and pretty much guaranteeing another level of joy-snatching drama for the event and its aftermath.
Despite some early hope that the toxic pairing had finally split up over money issues, last minute wrangling ?saved? the fight. So, the rematch is now set for September 15 and we can again expect to be disappointed.
If Canelo wins, Golovkinites will cry about Golovkin being too old or about the judges being in Canelo?s pockets. If Golovkin wins, Canelo fans will piss on Golovkin for beating up a junior middleweight or for getting consideration after pitching a hissy fit at the scoring last time. There?s zero chance of walking away satisfied after the rematch and 100% chance of both sides trying to parlay the frustration from another anticlimactic encounter into a part three.
Then, it?s on to Cinco de Mayo, 2019 for the next stop on the Canelo-Golovkin Codependency Tour.
