It is a huge weekend in the boxing that is surely going to be entertaining for fans, seeing two big names in the boxing industry battle it out once again for the WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, and The Ring super-middleweight titles. The trilogy fight between the great Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and veteran Gennady Golovkin takes place on Saturday, 17 September at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The pair face each other for the third time in the span of five years. The first time locking horns in 2017 and the highly entertaining bout ended in a very controversial draw, ending GGG’s 37-fight winning streak. It was a fight in which Golovkin out struck Canelo for the majority of the fight (10 rounds out of 12). The rematch, that fans had called for because they were not satisfied with the initial result, took place in 2018 and it was once again a fight full of crackers, at the end it went down to the judges’ decision. The result of the second clash favouring Canelo for the win and putting a blemish on GGG’s then unbeaten fight record.
Once again the boxing fanbase was left divided by the decision with a part of the fans against the decision to give Canelo the win over GGG, as they felt the Kazakhstani national did enough to win the bout. Once again it was not overly satisfying to the public and since 2018 they have been calling for a trilogy fight to lay to rest their controversial shouts and have a clear winner.
Golovkin has worked very hard to get back to the top spots since his loss to the Mexican and has gone through a total of five fights to get back to a challenging position, the most notable of these coming against Ukrainian, Sergiy Derevyanchenko. GGG beat Derevyanchenko in 2019 to claim the IBF and IBO middleweight champion status. His most recent fight, however came against Ryoto Murata, and a very impressive and dominant display from the 40-year old got a win by TKO in the 9th round of the scheduled 12. This impressive win at his age would warrant him a shot at claiming the championship belts that Canelo currently holds.
The current WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, and The Ring super-middleweight champion, Canelo comes into this one having recently lost to Dmitry Bivol for the WBA Light heavyweight championship. Alvarez took a huge step in his career by making the decision of moving up a weight class to challenge the champion, which many fans praise him for while others are questioning the logical reasoning of it. With that defeat, Canelo has only now only lost twice in his professional career to date, losing his first fight in 2013 against the great, legendary Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather, a bout that Alvarez was expertly outclassed in. Some even say that Canelo attended school of boxing in that fight as he improved his skill so much that he has become almost unbeatable in recent years.
Canelo unified the super-middleweight division belts in just 11 months, just under a year, doing it against only the very best of the division. Canelo defeated Callum Smith for the WBA, The Ring, and WBC super-middleweight titles in 2020 via unanimous decision. In May 2021, Canelo beat highly rated Billy Joe Saunders for the WBO title and in November of the same year he overcame Caleb ‘Sweet Hands’ Plant for the IBF belt. He just recently signed a two-fight deal with DAZN and Matchroom to fight Bivol and Golovkin.
| Name: | Saul Alvarez | Gennady Golovkin |
| Age: | 32 | 40 |
| Nickname: | Canelo | GGG |
| Height: | 176cm (5ft 7 inch) | 179cm (5ft 8 inch) |
| Weight: | TBD | TBD |
| Country: | Mexico | Kazakhstan |
| Prof. Record: | 61 fights; 57-2-2 | 44 fights; 42-1-1 |
| Stance: | Orthodox | Orthodox |
Canelo Alvarez vs Gennady Golovkin Full Fightcard:
- Main Event : Canelo Alvarez (c) vs. Gennadiy Golovkin (WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, and The Ring super-middleweight titles)
- Jesse Rodriguez (c) vs. Israel Gonzalez (WBC super-flyweight title)
- Diego Pacheco vs. Enrique Collazo (WBC USNBC Silver super-middleweight title)
- Ali Akhmedov vs Gabe Rosado (IBF North American super-middleweight title)
- Austin Williams vs. Kieron Conway (WBA International middleweight title)
- Marc Castro vs. Kevin Mendoza : Lightweights
- Aaron Aponte vs. Fernando Molina : Super-Lightweights
- Anthony Herrera vs. Delvin McKinley : Super-Flyweights
