Mexican star Canelo Alvarez feels he is at the peak of his powers at super-middleweight and that he would probably knock out bitter rival Gennady Golovkin should they recommence hostilities at 168lbs.
Canelo and Golovkin engaged in two keenly contested and controversial encounters at middleweight in 2017 and 2018 with the Mexican seemingly fortunate to escape with a draw first time around (courtesy of Adalaide Byrd’s inexplicable 118-110 scorecard) before pipping the Kazakh puncher on a majority decision in the return.
The Mexican appears a different animal at 168lbs, having mightily impressed dethroning the division’s widely perceived No.1 Callum Smith (W12) in December. Canelo’s intention is now to unify at super-middle, having won the WBC and WBA Super titles at the weight last month, but he may yet accommodate ‘GGG’ in a trilogy match after a contracted fight in February with the WBC’s mandatory challenger Avni Yildirim.
Canelo (54-1-2, 36 KOs), who also plans to fight in May and September, believes he would dominate Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) third time around though he wouldn’t accept any catchweight against the current IBF 160lbs champion from Kazakhstan. A bullish Canelo feels he has already established his superiority.
“I don’t have to prove anything to anyone, I did my job already by beating him twice [the first fight was ruled a draw] and, right now, I want to stay at 168. If he wants to move up, we’ll see what happens, if that’s what the fans really want,” Canelo told The Ring.
“I’m at 168 and I don’t have to do any favours for anyone. I’m at 168 and our goal is to unify here. I feel good right now, I feel strong. I feel like I’m at my peak and I continue working hard.
“If a [Golovkin] fight happens a third time, I feel so good that I could I most likely knock him out and do some serious damage.”