A Breakdown of How Canelo Alvarez Really Defeated Gennady Golovkin

Landed more power & accuracy

Friday afternoon, during initial weigh-ins, we noticed Gennady Golovkin showed up to the last face-to-face overweight, which his final weight may have been altered to save the fight.

Due to our professional (not personal) hate of Oscar De La Hoya, we were actually cheering for GGG to win this bout in convincing fashion. However, Canelo Alvarez showed up to the event in tip-top shape, looking the best, we’ve ever seen him in his career. So, what you are about to read is not a bias explanation of Canelo winning, because we were against him winning, at first.

To the casual fan, who witnessed flurry throws and jabs, it may have appeared that Triple G won convincingly. Canelo picked and caught jabs from Triple G through most of the night, and landed more power and slip punches. With HBO having their clear-cut agenda on making sure their brand fighter didn’t look bad, they created a belief that GGG was winning (see: Manny Pacquiao).

So, they gave the casuals an illusion that jabs Trips was landing were clear and had an effect on Alvarez; but the post-fight interview faces explained what really happened. With the exception of that insane 5th round shot that got Alvarez’s attention for a brief second, GGG didn’t land enough clean punches to convince us that his opponent was in danger. In rounds 1 through 6, we had Nelo winning those easily until the 7-9th rounds where Triple G finally tagged his opponent.

NOW WHAT’S RIGHT IS RIGHT.

Gennady relied heavily on his jab in stationary targeting, which may look like he was doing serious damage to Canelo. Our only gripe with Alvarez, was just that he let those middle rounds get out of control a little bit and rested up for the championship rounds.

Just because GGG was the majority aggressor does not mean he won this bout. He has insane power on smaller opponents, but was shocked when he received counter hits from Canelo and couldn’t handle it (look at his over-sized waistband) on an even playing-field.

When you watch again, you’ll notice Alvarez was throwing 7-punch combos in the last rounds; so that debunks him being tired. Golovkin essentially got controlled in the fight and was dictated for the first time in his career. So, Canelo held ring generalship, including forcing GGG to fight him on the ropes for rest periods; and in the middle of the ring when would become the aggressor.

After witnessing GGG buckle in the 10th round and returning minimal damage, we do believe more fighters are now terrified of Canelo. This was also the second time GGG fought somebody his own size, after he got exposed last spring in a close decision with Daniel Jacobs (we believe Golovkin lost that one too). If Canelo won, he would’ve instantly became the face of boxing last night.

However, pulling an upset on Triple G’s home territory of HBO, wasn’t going to happen without a knockout. By taking it easy in the middle stages of the fight and waiting until the latter half to finally start being the aggressor, enabled judges and the general public to believe GGG won.

We understand why it would look like Canelo got killed, but those jabs weren’t landing clearly if you go back and watch closely. Due to how close the fight was, we’re not sure HBO and K2 will allow a re-match this soon between both fighters. If there is a second fight down the line, we expect Canelo to increase his cardio training to avoid a similar situation of saving energy until the end.

But, this is what we all want, so neither will be able to duck Errol Spence whenever he decides to move up weight classes in the future. We’re not really concerned about the 118-110 card, because Adelaide Byrd was the only judge who got the winning fighter correct.

Take a look at the stats below and their faces after the fight, then re-watch what happened closely.

After that, let us know who you think really won the bout.

Teddy Atlas has a hilarious breakdown

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