By Rick Reeno
Las Vegas - WBA, WBC, IBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) still holds a lot of animosity towards his upcoming opponent, Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs).
After fighting to a controversial twelve round split draw in September 2017, they are scheduled to settle their differences on September 15th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Golovkin is still angry that Canelo's drug testing controversy was the main factor in collapsing their initial fight date of May 5th.
Canelo tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol back in February. He was suspended for six months by the Nevada State Athletic Commission - and forced to withdraw from the May date.
Golovkin still went forward on May 5, and picked up a quick two round stoppage of Vanes Martisosyan.
According to Golovkin, the entire situation placed a very negative cloud on the entire sport.
Because of the drug testing issues, the undefeated champion now views Canelo in a different light.
"Of course I look at him differently right now, because of what happened... what he did with the doping and the drugs. He did a lot of damage to boxing itself. It's really something bad that you can do this nice event," Golovkin said.
"He made this really bad mistake and continues to work with the same people, with the same team that brought him to the situation that he's in."
In their first contest, Canelo used a lot of movement to frustrate Golovkin in the fight. This time around, Golovkin and his head trainer, Abel Sanchez, worked out an entire plan to prevent Canelo from constantly using his legs.
"He was able to run around in the first fight, it will be a lot more difficult in the second fight," Golovkin said.
The rematch wasn't easy to make - with both camps battling over the monetary split for several months. Eventually they agreed on a split of 55-45 in Canelo's favor.
"I don't think I needed to lure him or anything [to make a deal]. I think he, more than me, needed the second fight because he lost a lot of respect because of what he's done," Golovkin said.
2023-10-21 09:29:48
2023-10-21 09:30:45
