ATTACK, we know, is often the best form of defence. And Canelo Alvarez is a skilled counter-puncher. Gennady Golovkin, his rival and the WBC and WBA middleweight champion, has roundly condemned the anti-doping violation that saw their rematch postponed until September 15.
Canelo hit out at the suddenly voluble Kazakh. He will not forgive “all the things that have been said, all the offensive claims that have been made about me”.
Alvarez declared, “It’s a motivation for me. It’s a motivation for me to continue training harder.
“I’m motivated because of all that’s been said and I’m motivated to get in there and get in the ring to hurt him.”
“Never in my life have I felt like I feel today,” he adds. “I think I look better than the last fight.”
Golovkin’s team were unimpressed with the judges’ decision that saw their first fight controversially ruled a draw. But Canelo said, “I don’t spend my time crying about the decisions that are made or the judges. I do my work and I train hard, despite what people say or what’s going on with the judges.
“The most important thing is that however we win, it has to very convincingly and it has to more [like] a knockout, just to leave no doubts.”
Alvarez is insistent that he has the beating of Golovkin, dismissing the world champion as “a very awkward and slow fighter”. Canelo continued, “Every time I see his fights, I see it more and more, that he’s a very slow and awkward fighter and basically that he’s a very basic and common fighter.”
Nor does the Mexican’s team expect Golovkin to have improved over the course of the year since they last fought. Trainer Eddy Reynoso said, “He hasn’t learned anything especially as he hasn’t fought in a year. They’re actually in the same place right now because fighting against a heavy bag, like he did last time, isn’t considered a fight. At 35 years of age there’s nothing you can really teach this guy. What they have taught him is to run his mouth.”
