WBC Special Preview: #CaneloGGG III

World Boxing Council

Jose Sulaimán – WBC HONORARY POSTHUMOUS LIFETIME PRESIDENT (+)

Mauricio Sulaimán – WBC PRESIDENT WBC STATS 

WBC SUPERMIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

T-MOBILE ARENA LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, UNITED STATES

SEPTEMBER 17, 2022

TV: DAZN

THIS WILL BE THE WBC’S 2, 149 CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE  FIGHT   IN  IT´s  FIFTY-NINE YEAR HISTORY OF THE WBC

EDDIE HEARN & MATCHROOM BOXING, PRESENTS:

SAUL ALVAREZ                                                                     GENNADY GOLOVKIN

(MEXICO)                                                                                         (KAZAKHSTAN)

UNDISPUTED 168 LBS. CHAMPION                                         IBF 160 LBS. CHAMPION 

Nationality:               Mexico                                                              Nationality:    Kazakhstan

Date of Birth:           July 18, 1990                                                    Date of Birth: April 8, 1982

Birthplace:                Tlajomulco de Zuñiga, Jalisco                       Birthplace:     Karaganda, Kazakhstan

Residence:                 Guadalajara, Jalisco                                       Residence:      Los Angeles, California, USA

Alias:                          Canelo                                                               Alias:               GGG

Record:                     57-2-2, 39 ko’s                                                 Record:           42-1-1, 37 ko’s

KO’S %:                   63.9%                                                                KO’S %:          84.9%

Age:                           32                                                                       Age:                 40

Guard:                       Orthodox                                                          Guard:            Orthodox

Total rounds:             448                                                                     Total rounds:  228

World title fights: 20 (17-2-1)                                                           World title fights: 25 (23-1-1)

Trainer:                     Jose Reynoso                                                    Trainer:          Johnathon Banks

Manager:                  Eddy Reynoso                                                  Manager:       Tom Loeffler

Promoter:      GGG Promotions

WBC SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPIONS

NAME                                                            PERIOD AS CHAMPION

1. RAY LEONARD (US) 1988 – 1990
2. MAURO GALVANO (ITALY) 1990 – 1992
3. NIGEL BENN (GB) 1992 – 1996
4. THULANE MALINGA (S. AFR) 1996
5. VINCENZO NARDIELLO (ITA) 1996
6. ROBIN REID (GB) 1996 – 1997
7. THULANE MALINGA (S. AFR) * 1997 – 1998
8. RICHIE WOODHALL (GB) 1998 – 1999
9. MARKUS BEYER (GERMANY) 1999 – 2000
10. GLENN CATLEY (GB) 2000
11. DINGAAN THOBELA (S. AFR) 2000
12. DAVE HILTON (CAN) 2000
13. ERIC LUCAS (CAN) 2001 – 2003
14. MARKUS BEYER (GERMANY) * 2003 – 2004
15. DANNY GREEN (AUSTRALIA) INTERIM 2003 – 2005
16. CRISTIAN SANAVIA (ITALY) 2004
17. MARKUS BEYER (GERMANY) * 2004 – 2006
18. MIKKEL KESSLER (DENMARK) 2006 – 2007
19. JOE CALZAGHE (GB) 2007
20. CARL FROCH (GB) 2008 – 2010
21. MIKKEL KESSLER (DENMARK) * (EMERITUS) 2010
22. CARL FROCH (GB) * 2010 – 2011
23. ANDRE WARD (US) 2011 – 2012
24. SAKIO BIKA (CAMEROON) 2013 – 2014
25. ANTHONY DIRRELL (US) 2014 – 2015
26. BADOU JACK (GAMBIA/SWEDEN) 2015 – 2017
27. DAVID BENAVIDEZ (US) IN RECESS 2017 – 2018
28. ANTHONY DIRRELL (US) * 2019
29. DAVID BENAVIDEZ (US) * 2019 – 2020
30. SAUL ALVAREZ (MEXICO) 2020 –
31. DAVID BENAVIDEZ (US) * (Interim) 2022 –

* REGAINED

TOP TEN CHAMPIONS

RAY LEONARD (US)

JOE CALZAGHE (GB)

NIGEL BENN (GB)

ANDRE WARD (US)

 CARL FROCH (GB)

MIKKEL KESSLER (DENMARK)

ROBIN REID (GB)

DANNY GREEN (AUSTRALIA)

MARKUS BEYER (GERMANY)

ERIC LUCAS (CANADA)

GENERAL INFORMATION

23 WORLD CHAMPIONS RECOGNIZED BY THE WBC OF WHICH ONLY 3 HAVE REGAINED THEIR TITLE:

MARKUS BEYER (GERMANY)

THULANE MALINGA (S. AFRICA)

CARL FROCH (GB)

83 WORLD TITLE BOUTS HAVE BEEN HELD IN SUPERMIDDLEWEIGHT DIVISION IN THE HISTORY OF THE WBC IN 12 COUNTRIES

THIS WILL BE THE 31^th. TITLE FIGHT OF WHICH HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN UNITED STATES IN SUPERMIDDLEWEIGHT DIVISION IN THE HISTORY OF THE WBC

WORLD SUPERMIDDLEWEIGHT TITLE BOUTS BY COUNTRY IN WBC HISTORY

USA                                         30

ENGLAND                               21

GERMANY                               13

CANADA                                  5

ITALY                                     4

DENMARK                               3

WALES                                    2

SOUTH ARABIA                      1

SOUTH AFRICA                       1

SCOTLAND                             1

MONACO                                 1

FINLAND                                 1

TOTAL FIGHTS           83

** IN THIS DIVISION NIGEL BENN HAS THE RECORD OF MOST DEFENSES WITH 10

WBC TITLE BOUTS HELD IN THE  NEVADA STATE

345 BOUTS HAVE BEEN HELD IN THE NEVADA STATE IN THE ENTIRE WBC HISTORY

THIS WILL BE THE 7th. WBC SUPERMIDDLEWEIGHT TITLE BOUT TO BE CELEBRATED IN THE NEVADA STATE

44 WBC TITLE BOUTS IN THE HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION, T

BREAKDOWN BY DIVISION:

HEAVY                             44

WELTER                           39*

SUPERFEATHER             36

SUPERLIGHT                  35

LIGHT                              34

MIDDLE                            30

SUPERWELTER               31*

FEATHER                         18

SUPERBANTAM              18

Lt.HEAVY                       13*

Lt.FLY                             10

BANTAM                          9

CRUISER                          8

STRAW                             8

SUPERMIDDLE                6*

SUPERFLY                       3

FLY                                   3

TOTAL BOUTS       345

* IN THIS DIVISIONS 2 TITLES WERE ON THE LINE AT THE SAME BOUT

WBC SUPERMIDDLEWEIGHT MEMORABLE FIGHTS

07/11/1988       RAY LEONARD – DON LALONDE                                     KO 9                    LAS VEGAS

12/06/1989       RAY LEONARD – THOMAS HEARNS                                 DRAW 12           LAS VEGAS

07/11/1989       RAY LEONARD – ROBERTO DURAN                                 DEC 12                LAS VEGAS

09/10/1993       NIGEL BENN – CHRIS EUBANK                                          DRAW 12           MANCHESTER

25/02/1995       NIGEL BENN – GERALD MCCLELLAN                             KO 10                  LONDON

02/03/1996       THULANE MALINGA – NIGEL BENN                                DEC 12                NEWCASTLE

11/09/1997       ROBIN REID – HASSINE CHERIFI                                       DEC 12                WIDNES

05/09/1998       RICHIE WOODHALL – GLENN CATLEY                          DEC 12                TELFORD

23/10/1999       MARKUS BEYER – RICHIE WOODHALL                          DEC 12                TELFORD

12/03/2005       MARKUS BEYER – DANNY GREEN                                   DEC 12                ZWUICKAU

14/10/2006       MIKKEL KESSLER – MARKUS BEYER                               KO 3                    COPENHAGEN

03/11/2007       JOE CALZAGHE – MIKKEL KESSLER                                DEC 12                CARDIFF

06/12/2008       CARL FROCH  – JEAN PASCAL (VACANT)                       DEC 12                NOTTINGHAM

25/04/2009       CARL FROCH – JERMAIN TAYLOR                                    TKO 12               MASHANTUCKET

17/10/2009       ARTHUR ABRAHAM – JERMAIN TAYLOR                       KO 12                  BERLIN

21/11/2009       ANDRE WARD – MIKKELL KESSLER                                TD 11                  OAKLAND

27/03/2010       ANDRE DIRRELL – ARTHUR ABRAHAM                          DISQ 11              DETROIT

24/04/2010       MIKKEL KESSLER – CARL FROCH                                     UD 12                  HERNING

27/11/2010       CARL FROCH – ARTHUR ABRAHAM                                 UD 12                  HELSINKI

04/06/2011       CARL FROCH – GLEN JOHNSON                                        MD 12                 ATLANTIC CITY

07/12/2013       SAKIO BIKA – ANTHONY DIRRELL                                  SD 12                   BROOKLYN

24/04/2015       BADOU JACK – ANTHONY DIRRELL                                MD 12                 CHICAGO

30/04/2016       BADOU JACK – LUCIAN BUTE                                           DREW 12            WASHINGTON

08/09/2017       DAVID BENAVIDEZ – RONALD GAVRIL                         SD 12                   LAS VEGAS

19/12/2020       SAUL ALVAREZ – CALLUM SMITH                                   UD 12                  SAN ANTONIO

08/05/2021       SAUL ALVAREZ – BILLY JOE SAUNDERS                       TKO 8                 ARLINGTON

And now the end is near

By James Blears

Four years since their second epic encounter and so soon, on September 17^th during the Mexican Independence annual celebrations, location the T Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Canelo and Triple G, will wage the final warring decider, in their last encounter, which is certain to be the most dramatic showdown of the trilogy.

Canelo has all the belts at super middle and Golovkin in a last hurrah, is moving up a division after him and them. Best to be up front and start with the daunting stat. Gennady is forty years old, and Canelo is thirty two. That`s so much to give away age wise, but magnified, multiplied and mummified in terms of the boxing ring. Eight years is a gulf and to bridge it, would take an historic achievement, demanding super-human brilliant sheen at super-middleweight, to turn back the hands of the clock.  We will soon see if it´s a bridge too far, or an arch of triumph.

Their two first fights were so very, very close. Irrespective of the official draw and the win for Canelo, I felt that Golovkin won the first and Canelo won the second. So here we are… and here we go!

Even though Canelo is the younger, he has fought more often. His record stands at 57-2-2, 39 K0`s, accomplished over 448 rounds. He started at the tender age of fifteen, so he`s been fighting professionally for seventeen long years. His debut was way back in 2005. Gennady`s record is 42-1-1, 37 KO`s. His pro debut was in 2006, aged twenty three. He`s fought 228 rounds.

No one can defeat Father Time and Mother Nature. Gennady is showing unmistakable signs of ageing. In 2019 he had to dig so deep to defeat Sergiy Derevyanchenko, albeit by UD. A six punch combination concluded by a cracking right, briefly put Sergiy down in the first and a left hook sliced his right eye open in the second. But dipping into the shallower yet more effervescent fountain of youth, he fought back with tenacity. Body punches hurt Gennady and he was backed up time and again.

Gennady is a front footed fighter. He doesn`t look good or move well, being forced back. Unlike in his earlier career he had to weather a cascade of punches in order to land his own, which were heavier, but there was a price to pay inflicting them. His own face became swollen with crimson crab apple cheeks.

Gennady has always had an iron chin, but never before was it tested so much and the constant body punches severely left their mark. He was suffering and that sort of tirade trade-off, has its inevitable consequences.

The signs of deterioration were even more evident in his most recent fight in Japan against WBA middleweight champion Ryota Murata in April of this year. The first five rounds were verging on a nightmare for IBF champion Gennady. His accurate left jabs were countered by a searing and visibly hurtful body attack from Ryota, who was also landing hard rights to the head. Gennady was wincing!

Nowadays Gennady is slower, although still heavy handed and pinpoint accurate and he can`t maintain his hitherto blitz like attack. Between flurries, he takes a breather and he`s much easier to hit. The zap remains, but zip isn`t there in the legs, as it once was.

A massive right by Gennady in the sixth, changed the course of the fight and Ryota´s ability to take it to him diminished. Another even bigger right, at the start of the ninth signaled the beginning of the end. Gennady unleashed, Ryota went down, got up and GGG launched an unanswered onslaught, until the towel came flying in.  But… the wear and tear he`d sustained to bring down the victory curtain was significantly fraying.

Against Canelo, one division up from his natural weight, Gennady won`t have the luxury of being able to weather a firestorm and then pour it on with the extinguishers. Canelo hits considerably harder than either Derevyanchenko or Murata, and he knows Gennady considerably better. They`ve already fought twenty four rounds.

Although Gennady stands five feet ten and a half inches tall and  his reach spans seventy inches,  Canelo, who´s a more compact five feet eight inches tall, has a reach of seventy and a half inches!

At this stage of his career, Canelo is a natural super-middleweight, but Gennady is not. On a recent visit to Mexico, Golden Boy Matchmaker Roberto Diaz suggested that at his age, Gennady might benefit from the extra eight pounds. But if this had been fought at middleweight, Canelo would have been the one to work much harder and more stringently to make the weight. Canelo`s frame is more square and solid, while even approaching middle age, Gennady is more slender and willowy.

Canelo doesn`t look good in and isn`t big enough for the light-heavyweight category. Sure, he KO`d Sergey Kovalev in spectacular fashion in the eleventh. But Kovalev was coming off a veritable war against Anthony Yarde less than three months earlier.

Undefeated WBA champion Dmitry Bivol was altogether a different test. Taller, more mobile and with so much quicker hand speed, he dominated Canelo with the left jab and pinpoint combinations. Canelo was  ponderous and slow, carrying the extra weight and he plodded at a pedestrian pace. As early as the fifth round, he appeared to be tiring and although he got his second wind later on, he wasn`t able to maintain a sustained attack.

Bivol, who avoided and evaded being trapped on the ropes, didn`t stand and trade. Instead, he fired in quick-silver combos and was versatile as opposed to Canelo`s dour predictability. Saul was constantly trying to catch-up, and he didn`t.

Following his defeat aged 23 against Floyd Mayweather, Canelo went back to school and significantly improved. Now at 32, I expect him to do the same. He has to work on his speed, stamina and punch variation plus output, especially to the body, where Gennady is increasingly vulnerable.

No boxer is at their best at forty years old. Yet Gennady might still have one final supreme fight within him. To achieve it, he will have had to put himself through a Spartan training routine which is more prolonged, more graduated, tempered and measured than ever before. It takes longer when you`re older. You know what to do, but it takes your brain longer to coax your body to obey its impulse commands.

Many years ago I asked Emanuel Steward, how he`d train four times heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield to become champ for a fifth time. Pausing for thought, Manny replied that he`d push an ageing body to defy its encroaching limits, just one more time. He`d put Evander in with younger sparring partners and make him work diligently plus often. Evander himself said that in that part of his career he preferred to run alone, rather than with the nimble young bloods. Everything would take considerably more time and require an even more meticulous build up. Sadly they never teamed up to try this formula, but the strategy is open to Jonathan Banks.

The longer the fight goes on and the more heavy punishment inflicted by Canelo upon Gennady, the more likely that even his legendary iron chin and steely resistance will bend, buckle and break. I feel that Gennady, who`s normally a slow starter, will have to uncharacteristically launch an early onslaught from the opening bell and go for broke in the first half of the fight. If not, then the greater  chance that Canelo, will catch up with him and throw landing bombs, as he tires and visibly ages, round by round.

The results in both of their first two fights haven`t shied away from controversy, but what happens in this one, will put those others into the shade.