Speaking on the trilogy fight between Saul ‘Canelo’ Álvarez and Gennady Golovkin, Eddie Hearn has highlighted the pressure on the Mexican fighter’s shoulders.
Canelo’s last outing was an unsuccessful attempt at the WBA light-heavyweight title. It was the biggest weight jump in a career of bouncing around divisions for the Mexican, and proved too much on the night.
Bivol controlled the fight and won by unanimous decision. In a prior deal with DAZN, Canelo’s next fight was already made – a third with Golovkin. The promoter of the event believes that the recent loss makes it even more intriguing.
Catching up with Ariel Helwani on the MMA hour, Hearn says that perceptions of Canelo have changed.
“Back to back defeats for Canelo Álvarez, quite honestly, is disastrous. Before that [Bivol] fight there was this air of invincibility around Canelo Álvarez where it’s like he just can’t be beaten. And now, people are going [I think Triple G might do this.]”
“That’s the belief is that this guy’s not invincible anymore, and there’s so much pressure on him now to succeed. I think people understood he [was] moving up to a weight division he probably shouldn’t be in, he got beat, but I think it’s added spice to this fight because people give Golovkin more chance, and people know that Canelo is under serious pressure in this fight.”
Of course, it’s not only the loss to Bivol that will be spurring Canelo on to victory. The trilogy fight this Saturday marks the end of a bitter and controversial rivalry between him and ‘Triple G’ – one that began back in 2017.
The pair fought to a draw, but plenty in the boxing world thought Golovkin deserved the win. The rematch in a year’s time saw Álvarez claim victory by majority decision, with, again, some grumblings that Golovkin was under appreciated by the judges.
Since then, the pair have dominated in their divisions, with the feeling that a third fight was inevitable. It was, and it goes down on Saturday in Las Vegas on DAZN PPV.