Time for a blood feud
IFOLLOWED the Canelo Alvarez- Gennady “GGG” Golovkin superbout over the weekend via livestream and videos that were immediately available after the fight, and my take is Golovkin deserved at least a close decision win.
While Alvarez has his moments and proved a hard nut to crack, Golovkin was more in command and was even willing to mix it up with his younger opponent.
The decision should not have been that controversial if it were not for judge Adelaide Bird scoring it 118- 110 for Alvarez. The other judge Dave Moretti had it 115- 113 for Golovkin and Ton Trella scored it 114- 114.
This early, a rematch between the two is being cooked up and if I were Golovkin or Alvarez, I would make sure the judges won’t have any part in determining the winner.
I believe the draw was the best “commercial compromise” for the two fighters because that resulted in Golovkin keeping his world titles and undefeated record, and Alvarez maintaining his marketability as a topdraw fighter. And that is also the perfect stage for a rematch or even a trilogy to happen, which can earn the fighters and their camps millions of dollars, and the promoters perhaps even more.
Now, I have a suggestion on how to make the AlvarezGolovkin rematch truly exciting – ferment a blood feud between the protagonists.
Watching the Alvarez- Golovkin fight again and again, my prognosis is they did not harbor any rage or ill feelings toward each other; both simply wanted to knock out the other but also avoided getting clipped by haymakers.
If there was a blood feud between Alvarez and Golovkin, the fight would have ended inside six rounds, or even three rounds the way the Marvin Hagler-Thomas Hearns on April 1985 ended.
It is actually a pity that many young boxing fans never experienced or witnessed the golden era of boxing’s middle weights ( welterweight to middleweight) during the 1980s, with HaglerHearns being the most dramatic because of the blood feud between the protagonists.
Among the incidents that fermented the blood feud between Hagler and Hearns was Hagler telling Hearns to cut off one of his fingers that got injured during training, so their fight would push through as scheduled. That added fuel to the fire, because both fighters knew that their bout would be a clash of titans; Hearns was a 6’ 1” dominant force at welterweight and junior middleweight, with only one loss from Sugar Ray Leonard; and Hagler was making the 11th defense of his world middleweight titles. Both also had knockout power!
Their fight is still considered among the best in boxing history, with Hagler knocking out Hearns in the third round, but with Hagler bleeding heavily from a cut on his forehead.
So is a blood feud necessary between Alvarez and Golovkin so their rematch ends in a stoppage? Why not? Maybe both of them should start insulting each other to a point both would come to blows during the rematch pressers? Or Alvarez and Golovkin should start using social media to make denigrating remarks on each other, to a point of demeaning the other’s manliness? Hey, I am just making suggestions.