We’re just over a week out from seeing what’s surely the final chapter in a boxing rivalry for the ages – Saul ‘Canelo’ Álvarez versus Gennady Golovkin.
With a new promo released by DAZN and the addition of a bespoke WBC trophy that may as well be called The Bragging Rights Belt, hype for the fight has reached fever pitch. Canelo’s undisputed super middleweight titles are on the line already – and surely more important to the winner than this new addition, despite its good looks.
Today, we unveil the "Zapoteca Belt" also known as “Jaguar Warrior Belt”, a masterpiece created by the greatest artisans of the Zapotec culture, from the State of Oaxaca.
This special trophy will be contested by #CaneloGGG on Sept. 17 at the T-Mobile Arena. pic.twitter.com/xRdTeQMMBn
— World Boxing Council (@WBCBoxing) September 7, 2022
Still, it’s fanfare for a fight that fans have been calling for since September 15th, 2018. Canelo claimed victory over Golovkin that night via majority decision – a year after a contentious split-draw in the pair’s first meeting a year prior.
The latest promotional video from DAZN, who will broadcast the fight via their PPV service in the UK and the US, takes us back to those first two meetings.
Talk from the fighters in the build-up has been something to analyse in itself. The often reserved and respectful Canelo has stated his dislike for Golovkin at every opportunity, and has expressed a desire to ‘retire him.’
‘Triple G’, on the other hand, has handled it with a smile. He’s said that he’s confused at his opponent’s disdain, as well as taunted him by saying he himself has ‘many Mexican fans’.
If these are tactics to further irritate his foe, they’re working. The fighter from Kazakhstan, now 40, is no doubt looking to hang up the gloves soon. A victory here might just be the one he’s waiting for.
In the other corner, Álvarez is looking to get back to winning ways – a feeling he’s only had once before in an already incredible career. His latest loss – the second on his record after losing to Floyd Mayweather in 2013 – came at the hands of a composed and clinical Dmitry Bivol.
Canelo did jump up to light heavyweight for the fight, but that will be no consolation to the Mexican. A loss is a loss, and Canelo doesn’t like to lose. Although, ahead of this fight, you get the feeling that coming up short against Golovkin would hurt him much more than Mayweather or Bivol.
Canelo vs. GGG 3 is on September 17 and will be, as the previous two fights were, hosted at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.