The summer of 2017 featured three of most intriguing and anticipated combat sports matchups of the past five years, if we’re being honest.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor wasn’t the greatest fight ever, but it was absolutely entertaining. Daniel Cormier vs. Jon Jones 2 was, of course, derailed by another controversy. But the bigger travesty was the result of the Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight.
Not sure how much you remember about the score cards, but one judge had it 115-113 Triple-G, another had it as a 114-114 draw, and a third judge inexplicably went 118-110 in favor of Alvarez.
That’s Adalaide Byrd, whose card was universally destroyed by pretty much everybody. She wasn’t suspended, but essentially sidelined for a bit by the Nevada State Athletic Commission before returning to judge UFC 222.
If you recall anything about the fight itself, GGG was the aggressor and Canelo spent a lot of time defending. It was a classic case of volume vs. efficiency, with Golovkin outlanding Canelo 218 to 169 and landing more punches in 10 of the 12 rounds.
These are the compubox numbers for the first fight:
Alvarez connected on a slightly higher percentage of his punches and landed four more power shots despite throwing almost 75 fewer. Golovkin threw more punches in total and jabbed at a higher efficiency. Again, you’re trying to compare volume to power and damage here, which fans of boxing and MMA will dispute until the end of time.
GGG did eat a couple of hard shots from Canelo and didn’t seem very fazed. I’m specifically thinking of that ridiculous right that Alvarez landed and GGG smiled off, like he was the Terminator or something:
Canelo Alvarez has put so many fighters to sleep with his powerful overhand right 💪🔥
GGG just shrugged and smiled 😉 #CaneloGGG2 pic.twitter.com/yCBjlOI0Cs
— Boxing on BT Sport 🥊 (@BTSportBoxing) September 9, 2018
I just feel like Golovkin established his own terms and stayed on the front foot. He had Canelo pinned against the ropes and let him off easy a few times I think, especially in the 5th round when he connected with that overhand right, and also in the 9th round when he looked to have Canelo struggling a bit. I’m not sure if he was being conservative because he was wary of Alvarez in the counter department, which is Canelo’s bread and butter. He’s an excellent counter-puncher and capable of throwing extremely hard stuff from defensive positions. Both guys showed a hell of a chin and shrugged off some shots that would have knocked me into Port Richmond.
You do wonder if GGG’s reputation hurt him a bit in this fight, as if people were expecting more. The knock against him was that he hadn’t proven himself against the best competition to earn the praise he was getting as perhaps the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Maybe landing more of those power shots or doing more against Canelo while having him pinned back would have erased some of the doubts about the end result, but who knows. GGG hit a lot of softer jabs and I don’t know if people correctly weighed some of the body shots Canelo landed. I think both guys took some damage, and Canelo seemed a bit gassed, which may have made him look worse for wear than he really was, at least before he unleashed in round 12, probably because he knew he needed a knockout to win the fight. But a large chunk of the middle of the bout, rounds four through nine, GGG seemed like he was in the zone and moving freely and fighting his fight while Canelo was backing up.
115-113 Triple-G seemed like the most reasonable outcome to me. When you go back and watch the fight again, there are some rounds that are just really hard to score, so I don’t envy the judges one bit. Still, there was no excuse for Byrd to score that fight 118-110 for Canelo and give GGG only two rounds. That was highway robbery.
Anyway, the draw moved Golovkin to 37-0-1 and Canelo to 49-1-2, with his only loss coming to Floyd Mayweather Jr. I guess the positive thing is that we get to watch these guys do it again.
If you’re a casual or a non-boxing fan, catch this one if you can, because the first fight was phenomenal, high level stuff:
10 Responses
No. Canelo has a completely new camp and method for this fight. Totally new diet, new trainers. His cardio is unreal now. He wins this fight by a unanimous decision.
Every fight there is another reason why Canelo won’t disappoint. Guess what, he’ll disappoint
I do not think 114-114 was an unreasonable score of the first fight
Cuz beats the old man every morning
The only thing Cuz beats is his meat since M C W left him.
3g is easy $$
what happened to boxing kinker? 10 years ago i would have ordered this fight or gone out with friends to watch it somewhere. Now i had no idea it was taking place and don’t give a shit either. How did boxing fall so far?
1. generational thing – I think a lot of people age 35 and younger prefer MMA, even though UFC isn’t super popular in Philly. But I talk to a ton of older writers in town who love boxing and still watch it all the time.
2. lack of star power? lack of solid promotion? crappy judging and controversy like GGG/Canelo 1? I dunno. feels like the days of Foreman and Tyson and Ali and those guys was so long ago.. Floyd was a great boxer but he was a defensive guy, it’s not like you were getting slug fights like you were back in the day. I think it’s a combo of a lot of different things, just don’t have the huge personalities like you used to
I feel like when it comes to MMA, while there are sooooo many organizations out there, only 1 stands as a recognizable brand to the public at large. UFC is able to market and sell their personalities more than any other MMA org. With boxing, who is the driving force? There are like 6 major boxing organizations, 2 don’t have a heavyweight champion, 1 of them has 3, and none of them have the same business model as a UFC or even WWE. How can you have interest in any fighter unless they have every org’s title in their weight class? Especially when these boxing organizations are doing little to sell them.
Yeah it’s a really good point.
GGG will not let it get to scorecards he will win in a 6th round knockout.
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