Recently, in an interview he gave with the folks at FightHype, Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez spoke about the punching power of Gennady Golovkin; GGG by far his most serious and intense career rival. Canelo said that while Golovkin does not carry “out of this world power,” he does hit hard – on a scale of 1 to ten, GGG carries 8 or 9 out of ten power, Canelo said.
Now, in a similar interview, world middleweight king Golovkin has spoken about the punching power belonging to the arch-rival he will meet in a huge return fight on September 15, once again in Las Vegas. GGG, as cool and as seemingly detached as usual, said he is not at all concerned with the Mexican fighter’s punching power. As fans may recall, Canelo cracked GGG with a flush shot to the head in round-nine of last year’s epic draw, and Golovkin scarcely blinked let alone got wobbled or noticeably hurt.
Maybe this is why GGG is not in any way enamoured with Canelo’s power.
“It’s [quite] hard to remember after one year, all this time. But from what I can remember, he didn’t surprise as being a heavy puncher,” Glovkin said of Canelo. “He’s not very hard puncher at all.”
Despite what Golovkin has said, Canelo has scored some impressive KO’s throughout his career, but not up at 160 pounds, and not recently. Both GGG and Canelo have said it will be flat out war in the rematch, with both men vowing to score a KO. In terms of the power belonging to both men and the chin to go along with it, which man has the best shot at landing the lights out shot? Maybe neither man will be able to land a shot to the chin that terminates the fight, but what about a shot to the body?
Both men are fine body punchers, although GGG, for whatever reason, never attacked the body with the efficiency he had previously shown when he rumbled with Canelo. Will this change in the return? Will Canelo also focus on the body more as he attempts to end all doubt by scoring a stoppage win?
It’s a fascinating fight, far more so than the first fight was. It’s always dangerous for any fighter to state how his rival doesn’t hit too hard, as he is then setting himself up to look foolish should he get stopped by his foe. Could this be the case with Golovkin? GGG, after all that has transpired, is not underestimating Canelo, is he?
Will this big fight come down to power or skill? Or both.
