It’s on: Canelo, Golovkin ready for big battle
It’s the kind of fight Gennady Golovkin has been chasing from the moment he walked off an airplane six years ago to make his new home in Los Angeles.
It’s the fight boxing fans have been waiting for almost as long.
Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez meet Saturday night in a middleweight showdown that has been brewing for years. They do it in their prime, and they both bring the kind of power that could make for a night that will be talked about in boxing for years to come.
Three weeks after Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor met in an odd spectacle, boxing shows off its best side in a scheduled 12-round fight that will pay both men millions and make one of them the undisputed top 160-pounder in the world.
“It’s a true fight,” Golovkin said. “You can go back home or go to the hospital. It’s dangerous. Everyone understands that.”
Indeed they do, which is one reason Golovkin has had trouble getting fighters in the ring with him. The fearsome slugger from Kazakhstan has stopped almost everyone put in the ring with him, winning all 37 of his fights, 33 by knockout.
But Alvarez packs power, too, and the red- headed Mexican is a savage counterpuncher with a style that should match up perfectly against the onrushing Golovkin.
“I don’t back down,” Alvarez said. “I’m a counter puncher, and I like to fight.”
The combination of styles has boxing fans salivating over what will happen in the same ring where Mayweather stopped McGregor three weeks ago. The fight quickly sold out and is expected to do well on HBO pay-per-view, though it will not reach the level of last month’s spectacle.
Still, it promises to be a can’t miss fight that brings back memories of the great middleweights of the 1980’s. Both fighters weighed in Friday at the middleweight limit of 160 pounds.