Genady Golovkin. AP
NOBODY in the excited great horde of over 51,000 at AT&T Stadium inTexas was really surprised at the knockout ending to the main event on Sunday. A mismatch, and stoppage, had been predicted even before the first ticket to the world championship could be printed.
The real stunner came after the ninth-round ending. Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez boxed like a powerhouse on fire and mangled the previously unbeaten but little known Englishman Liam Smith to capture the WBO junior middleweight title, before crying out that the unbeaten unified world middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin has refused to fight him.
“We offered him (Golovkin) 3 or 4 times to make a fight,” Alvarez blurted from top of the ring.
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True or false? Fact is that, through the past months, Alvarez had been pictured as a lamb afraid of getting any near the sharp and bull-strong Golovkin, unbeaten in 36 bouts, with 33 solid knockouts.
It was generally perceived Alvarez (48-1-1) had been ducking Golovkin.
Did the furious, blazing win over the taller but little-tested Smith turn Alvarez into one of the fiercest, bravest warriors out there?
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Exclaimed Alvarez: “I was born for this and, even though many people may not like it, I’m the best fighter now.”
“I fight the best and I want to be best,” he added.
Or could it also be a sudden attack of superiority after scoring a complete and compelling stoppage of a world champion who has had three previous successful defenses?
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Going back, it was generally known that Oscar De La Hoya, Canelo’s manager and chief cheerleader, had wanted Alvarez to first ripen into a full-fledged middleweight. Golden Boy did not like to rush up Alvarez. De La Hoya had maintained a showdown with Golovkin could be staged only in the fall of 2017.
So far, there has been no response from the GGG camp.
The Daily Telegraph of London yesterday started a readers poll on who between Golovkin and Alvarez would emerge victorious in what promises to be the biggest boxing bout in our time.
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Anyway, as De La Hoya will most likely have the final word, the Golovkin-Alvarez showdown could likely materialize no earlier than November 2017.
Reason: the might and mastery displayed against the taller but ill-equipped Smith is no vouch the cinnamon-haired Mexican ring icon could readily be as completely menacing against a fighter of Golovkin’s class and caliber. Smith, pardon this, did not prove to be a legit test.
Let the negotiations begin.