This year proved to be a banner year for the sport of
boxing after the so called “Fight of the Century” between welterweight
superstars Manny Pacquaio and Floyd Mayweather left more than a bitter taste in
the mouths fans. The fight promised much, but delivered very little.
In 2017, heavyweights Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko enthralled fans in a titanic clash
between the future and the past of the sport and did the sport proud in front
of a full capacity audience at Wembley. Most recently the mega hyped “Money
Fight” pitting Floyd Mayweather against MMA superstar Conor McGregor helped
draw the public eye back to one of the world’s oldest sports.
The most intriguing
point of the encounter proved be the antics and circus in the lead up to the clash
rather than anything that happened in the ring.
With that circus out of
the way, it’s time to get down to business. On the 16th of September
middleweight kingpin Gennady Gennadyevich Golovkin or “GGG” (37-0-0, 33 KOs)
will put his WBC, WBA, IBF and IBO titles on the line against two weight world
champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) in the middleweight “Supremacy”
fight.
The bout creates a great
sense of intrigue and has the boxing public split down the middle the sport’s current
two biggest stars and if there is anything to take away from this fight is that
it should be a cracker.
In Golovkin we have one
of the most avoided fighters in the sport; a heavy handed come forward fighter
with one the of the highest knockout ratios in the sports history. Canelo is
the golden boy of Mexican boxing and the whole country seems to come a standstill
when the red-haired Mexican steps through the ropes.
The best attributes of
either fighter match up so well that it wouldn’t be a far-gone conclusion to
expect a knock out finish or at least a stoppage. Canelo has the advantage of
having superior hand speed and is an excellent combination puncher. Golovkin has
the obvious power advantage and comes from a great amateur background with
sound fundamentals.
Other aspects of the
sport that either fighter are not good at also match up well together. Canelo has
been described as a flat footed fighter who tends to use superior head movement
to avoid punches to the head so he won’t be trying to run from Golovkin. Golovkin
has the better footwork of the two, but his lack of head movement has been
highlighted as a point of concern after he was hit with fast combinations against
welterweight Kell Brook last year.
There are questions yet
to be answered about both fighters on fight night. Canelo, despite having held the
middleweight WBC and Ring Magazines titles, has not actually fought at 160 lbs
before with both his fights being at the catch weight of 155. So it begs the
question how will the Mexican acclimatize himself against a real middleweight?
One thing Canelo has in
his favour is in the age disparity between the two fighters. Canelo is 27,
while GGG is 35 and there have been suspicions that father time has finally
caught up with the Kazakh destroyer after he had appeared less than impressive
in his previous fights against Kell Brook and Daniel Jacobs.
With all things
considered spectators should expect nothing less than an intriguing contest
which might turn into a straight shootout between the two rather than a game of cat
and mouse.
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