Jets LB Mauldin likely out for season with back injury

New York Jets linebacker Lorenzo Mauldin has a herniated disk in his back that likely will require season-ending surgery.

Mauldin, 24, is on the injured reserve list after missing almost all of training camp and each of New York’s four preseason games because of the back ailment. He returned for one practice midway through camp.

A third-round draft pick out of Louisville in 2015, Mauldin was expected to compete for a starting job at outside linebacker this year.

He also is facing off-field issues after he was accused of punching a man in a New York nightclub in April.

And surprise, surprise. This evenly matched fight was split at eight picks apiece.

There are high hopes this potential fight of the year will be remembered for a long time and possibly produce the latest boxing trilogy.

The ingredients are there for that to come to fruition with Golovkin (37-0, 33 knockouts) being an aggressive attacker who fights forward, while Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOS) prefers to counter with fast combinations.

Here are three keys to victory for Alvarez and Golovkin:

Attack the body

Alvarez, 27, clearly remembers the heat he took for vacating the WBC middleweight belt last year to put the Golovkin bout on hold for another year.

Many said he was ducking Golovkin, 35, and afraid to get hit by the knockout artist.

But by not rushing the fight, it helped Alvarez form into a true middleweight.

The last time Alvarez rushed a blockbuster bout, he was embarrassed by Floyd Mayweather for his only career loss.

“Every day, every night I’ve visualized the knockout (against Golovkin),” Alvarez said. “I’ve visualized it every night before going to sleep. I’m prepared to knock him out, and I keep seeing it.”

If Alvarez knocks out Golovkin, the doubters will eat their words. But again, Alvarez can’t rush. He needs to attack the body first before head hunting.

The Mexican superstar needs to earn Golovkin’s respect early and wear him down for the later rounds. Golovkin has an iron chin and won’t go down easily.

Be smart with uppercuts

Alvarez needs to be smart when going for the head. He thrives on starting a combination with a body shot that ends with a power shot upstairs.

But he can’t do that every time against the hard-throwing fighter from Kazakhstan.

Alvarez’s best weapon is the uppercut. He needs to land that at a high rate without taking too much punishment in return.

“There’s going to be a lot of punishment on both sides,” Alvarez said. “To attack him, I’ll need to take risks to be able to hit him to the body or to the head, but I need to do it in a smart way, not just to do it.

“I have to be thinking and not just be a target for him to hit.”

Stay true to yourself

With Alvarez talking about taking punishment regardless of what he does in the ring, that means he’s not going away from what made him a two-division champion.

Alvarez is a counter puncher who welcomes a brawl. He’s not a technical fighter, and he shouldn’t try to be to avoid the power shots