Teddy Atlas has stated that Gennadiy Golovkin is under no illusions going into his third fight with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
The Hall of Fame trainer and analyst has waded in on the debate about the clash which takes place next month.
The aforementioned Alvarez defends all of his super-middleweight gold – the WBC, WBA Super, IBF and WBO belts, as well as the Ring Magazine title – against the 40-year-old on September 17.
Golovkin, the current WBA, IBF and IBO champion at middleweight who stopped Ryota Murata in Japan back in July before agreeing to the long-awaited trilogy showdown with his long-time rival, will be back at the scene of the first two fights with the Mexican: the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
And Atlas think the formidable yet ageing Kazakh will have a major task on his hand come fight night in Nevada.
On his own podcast, ‘The Fight’, Atlas said:
“Not too many people beat father time and that’s going to possibly come to light with the third fight between ‘GGG and ‘Canelo’.
“I’m not going to give anything away about our fight plan that the fans will get to see, but I talk about whether the old lion – the old lion, of course, being ‘GGG’ – being given a chance to roar one last time.”
The results of the first two fights between the pair ended contentiously, with a split draw in the first one and a majority decision win for Alvarez in the second.
But Atlas believes Golovkin was on the wrong end of a stinking decision, particularly in the opener.
“They robbed him the way they rob you in boxing when they give a draw.
“They basically don’t leave fingerprints, they use latex gloves and they make it a draw because it’s too obvious to make it a win.
“The second one was different. ‘GGG’ boxed more, he used the jab more and he fought down the stretch when he had to. When the lion had to roar, he roared again and he won the fight, but there’s no doubt that ‘Canelo’ is a different guy.
“He’s the bigger, stronger guy now and how that happened, don’t ask me, I don’t know. We’ve talked about that in the past.”
Alvarez failed two drug tests back in 2018, three days apart from each other in mid-February, before their rematch and was handed a one-year ban, backdated six months to the first clash between the pair in August 2017.
“Watch the [second] fight back and you get to have much more of a feeling about that, but he’s now the bigger, stronger guy and he’s a more confident guy.
“He grew up in the second fight. He wasn’t so sure of himself in the first fight that he could handle this level of guy, but the second time he was much more sure of himself and that’s why he brought the fight the way he did, rather than the first time.
“But for Golovkin, it might be too late. These potentially great fight quite often get made just too late and this could turn out to be one of those.
Atlas went on to suggest it’s not only Canelo he has to beat to get the victory next month:
“He’s got a tough task and he knows that. He’s got a tough task in the way that he, first and foremost, has to beat the man. But not only does he have to beat the man who is younger than him and now more confident, but now he’s also got to beat the three judges outside the ring.
“Sometimes, they’re harder to beat than the man in the ring with you, but we’ll see what happens.”