Alvarez-Golovkin 3 - Things That Surprised Me

The more agile Canelo we saw from 2015-2020 is gone, I feel.

His best and most impressive run was from Chavez Jnr to Saunders. He looked mediocre against Plant until the end (constantly reset, turned and timed with the right hand by Plant) while Bivol just took the air out of his entire system.

Personally I am glad he lost to Bivol. Had he have won, he would have tried to challenge Beterbiev and probably gotten brutally massacred as a result. Then the wheels would have totally fallen off the Canelo train and his aura would have gone. DAZN would have tried to replace him ASAP as their cash cow too.

Maybe the hand bothered him or maybe he is in a sharp decline.

I mean, 17 years is a looooong career.

 

He needs to recharge his batteries, repair the hand damage he said he has. 24 rounds vs Bivol and GGG in 4 months will take its toll. I wouldn't say he looked in sharp decline though, he looked really sharp early on vs GGG. The speed and punch accuracy was there early. Canelo does gas late, but the gas tank was better last night than it was vs Bivol. Still leaking though. But we need to keep in mind though a lot of the reason why he gasses late is because of how hard he's working in there. He loaded up with big heavy shots against Bivol and GGG. The way Canelo punches would gas anyone. It was still a very impressive performance all things considered.

 

Fair points, the speed disparity was very apparently early, GGG looked like he was fighting in slow motion. You could say that's age, but the interesting thing is that GGG's hand speed seemed to really pick up in the late rounds. While I agree Canelo's no longer at his peak, he hasn't had a sharp decline either. This was still a great performance from Canelo.

 

Manny Pacquiao competed for 27 pro years. 17 years is but a silent fart with no smell.

 

This part I agree with Serge. GGG is like an old engine that takes a while to start. He did look like he was fighting in slow motion early on, but by round 9 and 10, it looked like the same GGG from 4/5 years ago. The hand speed all of a sudden was there again, and he was loading up on shots. When he did land, Canelo felt those shots and they slowed Canelo down.

GGG I think was too "stoic" early on. While Canelo was in motion, warmed up, maybe over-ready to, GGG was like a statue standing still. So while GGG was conserving his energy, Canelo as maybe using up too much energy. But the difference is Canelo was ready to go at full speed from the opening bell while GGG wasn't. GGG should have already started his engine before Round 1, so by the time the opening bell rang he would have his speed. That was the problem, he just was not ready to fight early on. You can blame it on age, but I think there was a miscalculation there by GGG. He was very capable of being more "ready to fight" at 40, but he was so worried about making it to the final bell he was super conservating his energy and he came out too slow to compete with Canelo who was better prepared to perform at a high level.

 

What I find confusing is the response. The Bivol performance was quite similar to GGG 1 and this performance was also Canelo 1.0. Focused on his gas tank, not taking chances and just throwing the odd counter his opponent gives him so he can win 8 rounds and take the W.

Stylistic differences but it was the core of why I was never a fan (until recently, still a fan because he's fighting a unique schedule). When he caved BJS' face in, that was a different Canelo. This is what he always was.

 

I give up, why??

 

guys like SRL, Duran, and Hagler would school both of them

let's take Canelo's most heralded KO on Khan, Khan looked a good 10lbs smaller than Canelo and performed like an amateur, setting up a right with a jab feign is as basic as it gets, so what does Khan do, he doesn't react to the jab feign at all by moving off center or throwing a punch that would disrupt the right, not only does he just stand there he drops his guard to attempt to shove with both hands and eats the right, lots of guys would have knocked him out similarly with a wide open shot like that

neither one of them display worthwhile head movement or move after they punch, they just stand there in front of each other, Canelo telegraphs his rights so bad and GGG doesn't move at all, GGG just stands there and eats jabs too

 

Congrats on you're scoring.

You're one of the few who scored it exactly as I did.

Which is to say, correctly.