MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 🚨 Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennadiy Golovkin 3 Instant Reaction

Episode Date: September 18, 2022

Brian Campbell breaks down Canelo Alvarez's victory over Gennadiy Golovkin in their trilogy. How did BC score the fight? What are his thoughts on the scorecards? What is next for Canelo and GGG? Morni...ng Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 TD Direct Investing offers live support, so whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. They came to Las Vegas seeking history on this Saturday night. A third meeting between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin. This time for Alvarez's four super middleweight world titles. Welcome on in.
Starting point is 00:00:35 It's your Canelo Triple G three instant analysis and reaction. My name is Brian Campbell. One half of your morning combat duo. Hey, let's not waste a lot of time here. Let's get right into it. This trilogy about four years after the rematch, it went down for the third straight time at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. And if you somehow stumbled out of this video in which you knew you were going to stumble into spoilers and then potentially could be upset after hearing the spoilers look into the mirror and reassess your life situation this fight just ended it's after midnight on the east coast so
Starting point is 00:01:10 you know we got to let it all hang out we talked ourselves into the romantic idea that Gennady Golovkin could turn back time and potentially redeem himself after disputed if not controversial bouts leading up to this point but youth was served in the end as Canelo Alvarez takes what looked to be to the naked eye. A wide and clear unanimous decision victory over Gennady Golovkin. I scored the fight 10 rounds to 2, 118 to 110. In some ways, I even struggled to give those two rounds to Golovkin. Despite a fairly detailed comeback between rounds nine and 12 overall. But the judges, which really plays in line to the history of this series, they saw something it seemed like none of us did.
Starting point is 00:01:59 The good news is we didn't have a draw. We didn't have a disputed decision in that case. We had scores that didn't make a lot of sense. 116 to 112 for Dave Moretti in his third consecutive fight in this trilogy as the judge and 115 to 113 for both Steve Weisfeld and David Sutherland. Weisfeld had the same score for Canelo in the rematch. Look, here's what it was at the end of the day. Sometimes you get all jazzed up for a boxing pay-per-view, a super fight, and sometimes it plays out in many cases to the worst case scenario. In terms of the potential or expected entertainment value, this was worst case.
Starting point is 00:02:35 Canelo Alvarez was a ring general. He did exactly what he had to do to keep an aging, often gun-shy Gennady Golovkin away from implementing that plan A that we talked about. When Golovkin is able to work downhill, be the more active puncher, get out with that weapon that is that lead jab. He's just a completely different fighter. When that's taken away from him, then you got to start asking him to do things
Starting point is 00:03:01 that he's not comfortable doing. Now, while I'll credit triple G for that late surge, I talked about, which we can get into here as this fight breakdown goes on. Overall, it was a little bit sad and you knew it pretty early. Uh, there was a disconnect between what triple G and trainer Jonathan Banks wanted
Starting point is 00:03:18 to do and what triple G's brain and the connection to his body wouldn't ultimately allow him to do. Uh, I don't call this a spectacular victory by Canelo Alvarez by any means. Again, and the connection to his body wouldn't ultimately allow him to do. I don't call this a spectacular victory by Canelo Alvarez by any means. Again, he controlled the action. He did some very subtle things in the end that gave him control, but you did hear him afterwards talk about an injured left hand, potentially even broken in training camp on the way here.
Starting point is 00:03:42 He basically said, look, I'm a warrior. I fought through no matter what. I think that takes away from any potential here criticism of at 32 coming off a loss to Dimitri Bivol did we see a somewhat flat Canelo or do we see a fighter going in the wrong direction that injury seemed to explain a lot why you didn't at the end see Canelo go Canelo excuse me go for the finish in the face of a potential rallying Triple G who really did nothing for the first eight rounds complete, I was a little disappointed by end of fight time that we didn't see Canelo step on the gas,
Starting point is 00:04:12 take advantage of the opportunity, which he talked about coming in, to be the first one to drop and maybe finish Gennady Golovkin and really put that stamp on the end of the series. Now, ultimately, Canelo gets the stamp of having won a wide victory again, in our eyes of what we saw in this third fight. And it was convincing. It was thorough,
Starting point is 00:04:32 but I thought he played it safe down the stretch, which again can be justified by a potential left-hand injury. But what did ultimately Canelo do to win this fight and win it so widely in my eyes, uh, the strategic. This of him to counter Triple G's jab. We know the speed advantage, which was big for Canelo in the first two fights, to be fair,
Starting point is 00:04:52 was potentially going to be exasperated in this third fight by the fact of age in the four years there. Even though Triple G hadn't lost in the four years since their second fight, we had to start to see him look a little bit old, particularly in the shootout with Derevyan Shanko, particularly in the unification five months ago against Ryota Murata in Japan, where even though Triple G scored a knockout win, he got hurt to the body against a non-puncher.
Starting point is 00:05:15 This time around, Canelo's ability to just walk in behind that high guard, put that pressure on Triple G, and then counter any attempts at Triple G getting out in front with not just one jab, but he likes to triple them up often. That was completely taken away. By rounds three and four, you almost saw a, I don't want to say confused, but a Triple G who started to move backwards. Triple G doesn't move backwards. So what was the key adjustment ultimately in this series?
Starting point is 00:05:43 Well, it came in fight two when Canelo decided to start walking Triple G down. I thought he utilized that strategy much earlier in this third fight, added some modifications to it, almost in some ways took the strategy that he had in the first fight as the counter-punching boxer from the outside. But instead of doing that from the outside, he applied that same pressure that he used in the second fight. Almost different circumstances, of course. But what did Floyd Mayweather do in the first four or five rounds against Conor McGregor in their sort of odd super fight? Stay behind that high
Starting point is 00:06:15 guard, constantly put forward pressure, try to mentally wear McGregor down and cut at his gas tank. In some ways, that's exactly what Canelo was able to do in this one, even without us realizing at the time that his left hand was limited. Now, he did throw his left hand a lot. In fact, some of the biggest punches he landed in this fight was a very smart leaping left hook that got over Golovkin's jab. He threw it off early in rounds. A lot of time it got Golovkin's attention
Starting point is 00:06:40 and kind of started making him walk backwards. But I can't overemphasize around rounds three and four. When we started to see Golovkin go backward regularly, it's a really, really bad sign for a fighter who to be very fair, a fighter who's always been great, holds the middleweight record for title defenses, have certain, you know, streaks that are just incredible. We'll go down as a hall of famer. And, and in that conversation with, with the Bernard Hopkins is the sugar Rayinsons for greatest middleweight of all time. You know, Carlos Monza. I mean, Marvin Hagler.
Starting point is 00:07:12 He's in that conversation for real. But if there was any criticism to Golovkin in terms of how these two matched up and how he looked at it, he doesn't make big time adjustments in fights. Now, look, in the end, in this fight, he did make some kind of adjustment. I think the adjustment was more of just kicking himself in the ass, hearing the pleas from Jonathan Banks, who boy, after round five, Jonathan Banks in his ear saying, uh, imploring triple G to look, you got to get behind the jab. The exact quote was, I need you to believe in everything we worked on. You didn't see that in the first half of the fight. So I'm going to credit Triple G again for coming on late.
Starting point is 00:07:49 And was it enough to save face? I don't believe so, despite those scores. In the end, this was kind of what I predicted. And it goes down in sort of a sad prediction that Canelo would take away Triple G's plan A early in the fight. It would motivate Triple G into some form of a fight or flight decision to try to salvage and save it. And again, I'll give him credit starting in round nine to start to pick it up and try to make it happen.
Starting point is 00:08:13 But he started well too late. And to see him, particularly between rounds four and eight, circling backwards, going away from punches, not cutting the ring off at all. The only time I'd ever seen that was in small spurts in the second Canelo fight, which again is the big reason why even though that second fight, which was the classic of the three, was split down the middle in terms of media and fans' belief in who won,
Starting point is 00:08:37 a lot of people ended up leading Canelo's side, leaning, excuse me, because he walked him down. He made Triple G step backwards. He put on the pressure. He took the bigger shots. Well, you saw Canelo implement that same strategy, but triple G just, just couldn't launch. He couldn't let go. Uh, you questioned during that stretch in the first half of the fight, was it just the speed difference in the, in the effects of age? Well, it was fueled by that, but I think even more, you know, as much as we wanted to see the triple G of old, it was an old triple G and it was a very old triple G
Starting point is 00:09:09 who couldn't let his hands go. Canelo strategic enough to cut them off at every turn. Anytime it looked like triple G was putting something together, Canelo would be there to answer how he should. Canelo overall, not overly impressive, which is what I said to start it. So it does go all go down in the end as sort of not only a ho-hum and and certainly the stinker of this great historic
Starting point is 00:09:31 three-fight rivalry and to be fair it's so rare in a historic trilogy that all three are equal in terms of their entertainment value and competitiveness there's normally a stinker of the three Morales Barrera part two, Gotti-Ward part two. Typically when you get a great action fight in the first half, it's tough, like in the movies, to put out a sequel that's better than the first to build on that. Maybe Golovkin and Canelo were rare that the second fight was even better. The first fight was great.
Starting point is 00:09:59 Second fight was all-time great in a lot of ways. It's not out of the question that you can get a stinker like this look at the roberto duran sugar ray leonard feud of the 1980s the first two had so many you know first fight was great to see leonard lose so early the second fight gave you no moss third fight duran shouldn't have been in there in the end and it was a money grab this kind of money grab in the end and i don't blame anyone who was involved triple g again hadn't lost since that second fight but clearly not the same fighter and at the end of the day even more than looking at this and saying wow canelo did everything he needed to do to close
Starting point is 00:10:38 that door the theme of this is that for a rivalry that i think from the beginning came on too late i know by saying that it's going to sound like sour grapes from a triple G fan, you know, underneath my journalistic shell, am I a triple G film? I'm a fan of both guys to be fair, but yes, you know, a lot of us in the media because of the breath of fresh air that triple G came, uh, when he arrived on the scene in the U S in 2012, I think for the entertainment value, for the historic value of this series, you wanted to see him come on here. You wanted to see him make this a good fight, but you knew early it wasn't going to happen. If there was any redeeming value in the end, separate from the anger and annoyance of hearing those scorecards so close,
Starting point is 00:11:20 the big redeeming thing was, I guess it was good to see them as sportsmen, shake hands, show each other, love, do the type of thing that great fighters who are in a great rivalry that in essence, not only defined their era in the sport, but in some ways their respective careers.
Starting point is 00:11:37 And you can certainly make that case for both fighters and what this feud and rivalry has meant to them. I like that. I pop for that. I like to see both guys giving each other the love and respect. And, you know, you want to see them when they're old guys at the Hall of Fame ceremony with their arms around each other. They did something special overall in these three fights, not in this third fight.
Starting point is 00:11:57 So you're not angry at anyone that they ultimately made it. But Canelo was very strategic in the timing of all these fights. I always talk about how you can't rag on Canelo too much because his use of the leverage he has as the star of the sport, the best fighter of the sport, you know, or arguably the best part of the sport. He's always used that for good for the most part,
Starting point is 00:12:18 but you know, he waited out, he became the middleweight champion in 2015 when he beat Miguel Cotto and he waited out facing the guy who everyone thought was the real middleweight champion of that era, Gennady Golovkin, until 2017. Essentially, almost two full years. And it was really Canelo the reason why we didn't see this third fight at all in the past four years. But I don't hold that against him because of all the chances he took and the success he brought on by climbing the the weight classes going to 168 becoming an undisputed champion going to 175 splitting two title fights and you know you heard him after this fight saying look yeah i'm gonna
Starting point is 00:12:54 need some time off i'm gonna need to get some surgery on this hand but i want to come back this fall against uh b-ball dimitri b-ball if he can get past zerto ramirez and by the way uh that's a light heavyweight title fight that That could be really fun. Keep an eye out for that one. I respect that for Canelo, but this third fight came too late. And did we try to grind the gears and get excited for what this could have been if Golovkin can channel his inner Marquez? Yes, we did.
Starting point is 00:13:21 And in some ways, that's part of the game in boxing where the peaks, the times that good fights come around and actually deliver, which is really the redeeming theme of the first two Canelo triple G bouts, right? And this post Mayweather Pacquiao pay-per-view dead era, these were the two bright spots. They over-delivered. You celebrate that. You love that. It's going to be really hard for them to keep that up and have that happen a third time. I'm happy, though, for what I said heading into this fight. I'd rather have it late than not at all.
Starting point is 00:13:55 And the arguments against it happening don't hold up well when Canelo was coming off a loss coming into this fight, when Triple G had unified middleweight titles, and when you could put four new titles at stake in this one which they did with the undisputed super middleweight crown it was still big enough it got people's attention even if the the promotion wasn't overly strong neither fighter played too deep into the blood blood between them to create viral moments that got people's attention purses were still pretty damn high as according to kevin aioli of yahoo sports
Starting point is 00:14:25 who talked to the nevada state commission through sources uh 20 million for triple g in this trilogy guaranteed 45 million for the 32 year old canelo alvarez let's take a look at the punch stats here uh overall alvarez's advantage was not that far in the end, 130 to 120 to Golovkin in total landed punches. First time in the series, Canelo gets that advantage. Triple G had the jab advantage of 74 to 45. Not surprising. What was ultimately surprising though, was that low output overall for triple G.
Starting point is 00:15:02 I did like though, the pockets that Canelo used his jab. It was a strategic one. It was not only a quick counter jab in the first three rounds to just establish and prove to Triple G, you're going to be too slow for me. I'm going to make you pay for that. But I thought even in the middle rounds, when he started to gain dynamic control before Golovkin's rally,
Starting point is 00:15:21 I did like the jabbing. The criticism toward Golovkin, as it was in the first two fights. The criticism toward Golovkin as it was in the first two fights, even though I thought he won both, was his lack of body punching output. Landing just six punches to the body in the first fight, eight in the second fight, and this third time around, Golovkin only landing 10 body shots, 37 total for Alvarez, who I didn't think he committed to the body nearly on the level that you would have thought or wanted to if you're looking at his best pass to victory. But let's not forget also it's the left hook to the liver that has become an outpunch for Canelo. And if that hand was broken, he did throw a decent amount of left hands to the body.
Starting point is 00:15:57 But none outside of maybe one, I think in round nine or ten that sort of hit that mark. And Triple G took a step in the wrong direction and made a face. None were the big breakthrough that you would have been looking for. And again, if that falls back on Canelo's hand, then more than anything else, that's fine. Power punch advantage, 85 to 46 in favor of Alvarez. Of course, this is all brought to you by CompuBox and Alvarez landing just shy of 40% of his power punches, 39.2. And you know, the old boxing adage, which is largely unbeaten, but there's a few outliers. If you land at least 40% of your power punches,
Starting point is 00:16:31 you probably have won that fight. Let's not go too much further though, without looking at this second half rally from Triple G. I'm happy that it happened. In some ways, I kind of predicted that he would find some life, that he would give us a few moments of what this series used to be. It just wasn't enough. And, you know, I've certainly respected the Zone and Ounce team,
Starting point is 00:16:54 and I'm friends with a lot of those guys. And, you know, Sergio Amoro, Todd Grisham, two of the best in the game, Chris Mannix, and they certainly had Danny Jacobs in there as well, and a four-man booth because of his history fighting both guys. But, you know, I thought they were, which is their job, really trying to hammer home the point between that rounds nine and 12 that we're getting flashes of the first two fights. You know, this is the Golovkin of old. The flashes were fleeting. They were so fleeting that even though round nine was largely hailed by the announced team and social media as a comeback round for Golovkin and I think in intention it was what I mean by that was Golovkin came out in that round
Starting point is 00:17:29 aggressive hearing the shots from his corner Jonathan Bakes between rounds again imploring him to you know come on man put it together I like that he started to back up Canelo what I didn't like was his inactivity when he got Canelo to the rope. So again, is it, is it a fear that Canelo speed advantage and Canelo is such an accurate, efficient, you know, counter puncher to begin with? Is it, is it a fear that he was going to get lit up? You know, if he went for broke, maybe, I think it's a little bit more of being too old, which creates think Tyron Woodley in the last, you know, four fights of hisfc career it creates a failure to let go an inability to connect with your brain to your body you can see the openings you can't react to those
Starting point is 00:18:10 openings but even though he had a little bit of success here in round nine everybody seemed to give him the round i give the round to canelo still and it's because anytime triple g had moments of backing canelo up or maybe landing one big punch canelo would come right back with a combination and i thought overall he did better work did. If you're asking what rounds I gave to triple G, I did give him the 10th round. I loved his output overall. It was another close one, but he had the triple jab to end it in the final 10 seconds. Uh, Canelo did uncork a big right upper cup. It only landed partial in the end. And also at the end of round 10 an accidental headbutt that opened up a cut around Canelo Alvarez's right eye never became a problem though I gave Alvarez round 11 and round
Starting point is 00:18:52 12 Triple G tried to make it a toe-to-toe fight to a certain degree for the first time in this series really you're seeing a Triple G in the trenches mauling pushing Canelo with two hands to try to set up a right hand. Too little, too late, Triple G. That was going to have to be a style that he was going to have to implement early to be physical with Canelo to set a certain tone. And again, while you give him some kind of respect between rounds nine and 12 for coming on a bit, could you have given him three or even all four of the final rounds? I mean, maybe if you'd given Triple G all four of those final rounds, by the way,
Starting point is 00:19:27 and hadn't given him any through the first eight, and I don't really think there was a round you could have or should have. I thought Alvarez clearly edged him in every single frame. Well, that would still be eight to four, 116, 112. Would that explain one of the three judges' scorecards? In this case, Dave Moretti? Sure.
Starting point is 00:19:43 And Moretti, by the way, one of the most respected names as we established coming into this fight, scored the first fight for Golovkin, one 51, 13, the only scorecard that went in his favor in this series and had seven, five for Alvarez in the rematch. Even if you're going to go buy a one 16, one 12 scorecard that Dave Moretti did, you have to give triple G every, every, uh, bet ounce of the benefit of the doubt. You know, I gave Triple G round 12 because he was pushing it, putting it on. Didn't have a huge amount of success, but he was busy, right? And I heard Canelo's corner before round 12. Eddie Reynoso say, play it safe here.
Starting point is 00:20:18 I was a little, not disturbed, but concerned by that. But again, you hear afterwards about the left hand. You understand that. What the judges scores, though, do say to you, eight rounds to four on one card. And of course, those other two Moretti and Sutherland going seven rounds to five was that both of those judges had to not only give Triple G every ounce of the benefit of the doubt. In some ways, they had to go even more. So you have to ask yourself, these are well well-respected judges these aren't loaded envelope type of judges these aren't judges who have essentially become disgraced because of how bad that that biggest night of the office was think cj ross in mayweather canelo 114 114 think adelaide bird in the first fight of this series 118 110
Starting point is 00:20:59 i don't know where where you find five full rounds here. Um, and even worse than that, you know, Todd Grisham made the, made the statement on the broadcast that, you know, had one more round going Golovkin's way on two of those scorecards. You know, he could have won a split decision here, you know, and Todd had mentioned, I think Canelo lost that final round, but what if, you know, what if he had, I'm sorry. I think, um, he ultimately had how I had it where I gave a triple know what if he had i'm sorry i think um he ultimately had how i had it where i gave a triple g but the i'm sorry he had it the way where he said i gave the 12th round triple g and i think that's correct he ultimately said he gave it to canelo but what if you flipped it would have been a draw it would have been a debacle and to be fair the first fight
Starting point is 00:21:40 it was a debacle afterwards that's a stain on the sport the 118 110 from their first fight, it was a debacle afterwards. That's a stain on the sport, the 118-110 from their first fight. The fact that that fight was so great, second one better, right? But first one, just so great, like just technical, strong, I mean, just a great fight. The fact that, you know, us boxing diehards who, if you're going to, if you're looking in on this and you're saying, BC, I might be an MMA guy, but I like you. I like your passion and you've gotten me to take a drink from the boxing fountain and maybe me maybe i've been lucky that 2021 was a great year for boxing 2022 has been pretty damn great too that if you're an
Starting point is 00:22:16 mma cash in terms of your boxing knowledge or love or maybe you used to love it but it ran you out and dude it runs a lot of people out okay It almost ran me out a couple of times. Believe me, that first fight has to look at as like, oh shit, boxing, get out of your own way for once. Like what a crock. The money fighter got the edge, right? And it was, but us boxing hardcores, we try to just retain some semblance of optimism.
Starting point is 00:22:43 And you might say, why? Because we love this damn game. Because it's the best when it's on, it's the best sport in the world. John Anik of the UFC used to always say that. A lot of people say that and know that. Why does Dana White still go to these fights? You know, I was Triple H at this Triple G
Starting point is 00:23:00 because when it's at its best, you're going to get the most celebrities. You're going to get the most eyeballs. A lot of times those eyeballs are going to get some dirt thrown in because that's what boxing does. The first fight with that decision was dirt thrown on, you know, top of what should have been a steak dinner. We justified it because the draw, which it was atrocious,
Starting point is 00:23:20 and Triple G got screwed, but at least it wasn't a loss for Triple G. And at least the fight was very good. So we thought if we get a rematch, well, maybe it could be even better. Rarely is the second fight better than the first. In this case, the second fight was,
Starting point is 00:23:33 um, the second fight further pushed the, the narrative that triple G is just straight up going to get screwed through this whole series. But again, I think half the people legitimately thought Canelo won seven to five and it was close enough fight where, however you had it seven, five in either direction in the second fight, you probably had it right. If this third fight turned out to be that scenario that
Starting point is 00:23:55 Grisham said, like if you had scored, if you were one of these three judges and I don't have the judges round by rounds in front of me, I can look it up quickly, but if I am interested to see how they would have scored that 12th round or how they did in the end. If that ended up being a Canelo round and if they had gone the direction of Golovkin instead, what would that have meant for
Starting point is 00:24:16 the sport of this series with that badly of another scarlet letter freaking hashtag that's boxing stain on it it would have sucked it would suck the horn you could argue that just hearing those scores is enough for them to make people go all right bc again i love you but the box it's it's it's a heartbreaker i'm here to tell you like a lot of other very good drugs the the side effects are pretty, they're pretty, they're pretty atrocious.
Starting point is 00:24:47 It's a little bit of a black eye with these close scorecards. I'm not going to lie. It could have been a lot worse, even though triple G getting a win in the third fight, he wouldn't have deserved would have been some kind of reverse karmic justice to a guy who seemingly has always done things the right way. And it's still so upset at Canelo for you potentially using steroids out of the second fight that the video package that
Starting point is 00:25:11 welcomed them into the arena that was narrated was had this moment that was like champions don't cheat and they showed a picture of Canelo so you know you know Triple G has always done it right it would have been fine karmically if Triple G got a backdoor reverse decision here. But you wouldn't have wanted or needed a fourth fight after what we just saw. And again, it would have just further perpetuated the inevitable lingering stigma on boxing that you watch boxing enough, it'll fuck you over. I'm sorry. That's just what it is. Okay. We almost, we almost got F'd here. Um, you're happy that the right guy won. I do think if it wasn't for that left-hand injury, as I said, we got to look a little
Starting point is 00:25:56 bit closer now, two fights in a row where we didn't see the best of Canelo Alvarez. Can he make adjustments to be Dimitri B-Ball 175 in a title rematch? I'd be willing to see it. You're going to get a lot of people saying, okay, Canelo, enough with fighting Oglovkin. When the hell are you going to fight Jamal Charlo, David Benavidez at 168? And really more David Benavidez. I agree with you. I think I said earlier this year on MK that like,
Starting point is 00:26:22 let's let Canelo get through the B-Vol and potential Triple G experience. And look, there's pressure on Canelo to get this fight for DAZN. And they got it. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada.
Starting point is 00:26:47 Are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments? Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. The credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply.
Starting point is 00:27:12 But if we don't enter 2023 starting to, you know, play the drum pads and getting ourselves fired up to the idea of Canelo Benavidez, then could we start saying Canelo's avoiding him? Yeah, I mean, people are already saying that. I don't think that's fair given his stature and given how active he is and given that he's basically seeking out one champion after another. So let's give him a chance here, you know, the B-ball. But Canelo's, you know, he's probably going to be a free agent network and promotion wise.
Starting point is 00:27:40 It will be interesting to see where he goes from there. And I think after some time off, how he looks and how he bounces back, because as much as we rightfully praised, how refreshing the schedule was that Canelo has kept over the past two, three years and fight. And, you know,
Starting point is 00:27:58 four times a year fighting sometimes four or five times in a 12 month window over, you know, over consecutive years, just the grind will catch up with you. over, you know, over consecutive years, just the grind will catch up with you eventually. You know, there's no question about that. You also can maximize your greatness, which I think he has. And he put together one spectacular performance after another. And Oh, by the way, it's a rich dude by this point. I mean, another 45 million, you know, just to get in the door here as your, as his guaranteed money.
Starting point is 00:28:23 If it wasn't for that left-hand injury, I think we'd kind of say, look, you know, there's things that we didn't love here. Didn't love the lack of killer instinct. Maybe without being able to hit with the jab left hook or left hook to the body, it slowed him down. And maybe to some degree Canelo was like, okay, Golovkin's always going to be tough and stubborn. He is coming out at the end here.
Starting point is 00:28:42 Let's just put this thing to bed. Hand injury, I'm going to give him that waiver. But as much as none of us want to sit here and see a 40-year-old Triple G get beat up and stopped or dropped for the first time in his career, in some ways, it's probably what should have happened given how flat he was in these first eight rounds. And I don't think that's anything you can argue or really look past. It's wild. It was just as wild as it was to see trouble G looking or sorry, Canelo look into Golovkin's eyes afterward and say, thank you so much,
Starting point is 00:29:15 my friend. We gave the fans three great fights. Thank you for everything. Good to see that in the end, but you know, not great when you talk yourself into a big fight in this case, the capstone on a great rivalry ended. But that's what we do, you know, in this box game. That's why we watch the fights. Overall, last couple of years, we're getting a lot of great shit.
Starting point is 00:29:40 The second half of this year coming up, if we end up landing Spence Crawford, potential for Tank Davis and Ryan Garcia, Jake Anderson. I mean, you know, they're starting to line up. We got a very good year on paper here coming up here to close out the second half of the year. I will want to see how Canelo bounces back. If B-Vol gets through Zerto Ramirez, as I mentioned, then you look to set up that matchup. But now we ask ourselves, what about Golovkin at 40? After the fight, he was very, very absolute about the idea that,
Starting point is 00:30:16 guys, you know, I'm still the champion. I'm still the unified champion. He said he has three belts. The reality is he has two of the four recognized belts. There's always a couple. There's he has two of the four recognized belts. There's a, there's always a couple X. There's always a lot of extra belts in boxing, not to mention how many unnecessary ones, the WBA and WBC float out there.
Starting point is 00:30:34 Not to mention all of those bullshit WBC, like Cinco de Mayo belts that they float out, but there's the, the IBO, which sometimes pretends it's the fifth sanctioning belt, but it's not. So still Golovkin has two of four. Could he still make big paydays like against a Jamal Charlo, you know,
Starting point is 00:30:51 for the unified middleweight champion? Of course he could. Could he win those though? I don't know, man. He sounded very, very confident that he still has some unfinished business that he's, you know, whether that's the idea of just, I want to bank these paydays for my family and my future, or whether the competitor inside of him is still thinking, okay,
Starting point is 00:31:09 I lost to Canelo, but he's, you know, arguably the best fighter in the world. I'm still a champion of my own division. He'll certainly get the chance to try that. But anyone that wants to fight Golovkin, that is assuming he's passed it,
Starting point is 00:31:23 that, that the openings that would never have been there in the past are going to be there. They just have to watch this tape and see that they will be. And that's no harm. That's no foul on Golovkin. Maybe he, you know, I tend to assume that all my heroes are using in this modern era. I think you should too. You know, we don't have to be all Luke Thomas about it,
Starting point is 00:31:39 but I think we should be waking up to that reality. If somehow Golovkin didn't, and this hard stance against Canelo for being a cheater was pure and real. I mean, Golovkin's had one of the most pure runs that we've ever seen. And, and, and, you know,
Starting point is 00:31:54 just becoming an unlikely star and doing it the right way and dominant, being dominant and giving, you know, he, there was a stretch there when he was with HBO. And I thought they did when they couldn't get him into big fights because Canelo was keeping him at arm's length. And Cotto was keeping stretch there when he was with HBO, and I thought they couldn't get him into big fights because Canelo was keeping him at arm's length. Cotto was keeping him at arm's length.
Starting point is 00:32:10 Sergio Martinez wanted nothing to do with Golovkin. It was really hard to get him top-level fights in his prime. I mean, he didn't really get prime guys until the very end, right, when he's already 35, 36 fighting Danny Jacobs, fighting Canelo twice. But I always thought HBO did a great job of just keeping him active and it did get to a point and there was a small window there where glovkin was mike tyson or even ronda rousey like where it suddenly didn't matter the opponent he just wanted to see this great professional go out there systematically break somebody down knock them the hell out, and then say those quirky,
Starting point is 00:32:46 broken English catchphrases afterwards. He's had a great run. But proud champions sometimes need to see and feel for themselves that it's really over. And I do, I don't want to say fear, because even though Golovkin lost this fight handily, he didn't ultimately take a beating. He probably should have taken a beating.
Starting point is 00:33:06 And again, if it's Canelo's left-hand injury that prevented that, okay. But it's almost like fool's gold, potentially in his mind, because he did activate a rally in the end. Gave him two of the four final rounds. It seems these judges probably gave him a lot more than those,
Starting point is 00:33:20 which doesn't make a ton of sense, but you get my point. Does that talk Gennady into the idea that, well, I've still got it. Well, if you, if he starts earlier and in fights at the same pace, he didn't fight around, you know, in rounds nine through 12, he's going to have a much better chance. He would have had a much better chance in this third fight if he had done that. But I think in this matchup, in the way that the two styles clashed, he was getting countered so cleanly. It was very disappointing to see him go in the other direction and it plays into that thing that we that luke and i thomas and i played up in the ahead of this fight that
Starting point is 00:33:52 says ganadi actually have that gear man he is a killer when he's moving downhill but does he have that gear to risk it all as much as i liked his rally through 9 and 12 i don't think he ever truly risked at all. And maybe that creates a fool's gold scenario mixed with Canelo's hand injury that Golovkin still thinks he can go in there and not have to necessarily go life or death on his chin to have a chance to win it. But against somebody like a Jamal Charlo, unless he can hurt them earlier, it's probably what's going to happen to him. But great aging champions sometimes have to find out for themselves. And if that's where it's
Starting point is 00:34:25 going to be, that's where it's going to be. I mean, maybe it's good that Gennady can go out without, you know, his face was blotchy. It was red in the early rounds and never really got worse. No cuts, not beat up too bad, but yeah, a little bit of a flat tire here, but that's what happens in the box game. There's a couple of big fights. If Gennady was ever interested in, in further going up to 68, we know the names that were, that are there and they could certainly be potential opponents, but yeah,
Starting point is 00:34:54 he's also got to look in the mirror and it's himself and his family and look at the money he's made and ask himself if it's worth it. Um, watch closely though on Canelo's next performance on the next comeback. He says, you know, he doesn't need anything else. Tune up wise. He wants to go right into a B-ball fight. I'm certainly going to performance on the next comeback. He says he doesn't need anything else tune-up-wise.
Starting point is 00:35:05 He wants to go right into a B-ball fight. I'm certainly going to give him the benefit of the doubt that he can make adaptions and adjustments because he's done that in his career. He did that in the second fight with Golovkin. But I want to see if we can see a Canelo that has that killer ring stinking again because it wasn't there tonight. And maybe fuel by injury.
Starting point is 00:35:23 I don't think it was fueled by respect, but it's like our greatest fear as a respecter of Gennady was to see him get his ass kicked. Canelo should have kicked his ass. I mean, he should have, he probably should have something, something was holding back on his edge and,
Starting point is 00:35:42 and injury, but something else maybe too. That was just more looking to let's get to the finish line. He has been running high and hard lately. Let's give him this time off. Let's give him the surgery. But I will be looking closely when Canelo gets back. And you say, why?
Starting point is 00:35:56 Is a 32-year-old guy over the hill, a guy who's still your pound-for-pound king? No. But Canelo started his career so early, turning pro at age 15. I mean, by the time he fought Floyd when he was 23, I think he had like the same amount of fights as a professional as Floyd did. I mean, this is a guy who, you know, like a lot of young Mexican fighters don't have an amateur career. Their amateur career is their first 25 pro fights, right?
Starting point is 00:36:19 Like they're just, you know, sometimes that can age you a little bit earlier. It's just something to watch with Canelo moving forward. Also to watch separate from the B-ball fight, which in theory would have to be a DAZN fight as the first one was, Dmitry B-ball promoted by Eddie Hearn, a matchroom sport under the DAZN banner. Will Canelo after that be looking to use that free agency? Would he come to a PBC, which currently has deals with, you know,
Starting point is 00:36:43 Fox and Showtime, but the fox wasn't supposed to be ending this year would he come to the pbc for a multi-fight deal to fight the the charlos and the benefituses i'd love that would he go to espn under the top ranked banner and look to fight big names well no one jumping through your screen necessarily in those weight classes at the moment but um you know not much bad despite me to, that you can really say survive in advance for Canelo entering round 11, though, this stat, this stat was rough. Triple G had thrown 300 fewer punches at that point at the start of round 11 than he had in the second fight.
Starting point is 00:37:19 If you're looking one more time at the compu box, this fight for Triple G attempted 120. I'm sorry, attempted 521, landed 120. In the second fight, he attempted nearly 900 and landed 234. So a little more than half of the amount of punches landed and nearly double the amount of punches, less attempted compared to that. So there you have it. If you're still with me, I appreciate that. We are morning combat every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday live 11 AM. Eastern time on YouTube, the biggest boxing, MMA news fights, previews, reviews. We got your back.
Starting point is 00:38:04 Luke Thomas and I will be back on Monday morning to recap the weekend that was the fallout from Golovkin Canelo 3. Everything you need to see and hear from what went on in UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas. How about Corey Sanhagen, right? How about everybody getting cut up and like shit
Starting point is 00:38:20 right there, all right? Damn, that was brutal. I'm going to sign off for the, for the night. All right. Uh, Oh, one, one final thing here. I think, uh, I do have those scorecards shout out to my producer, Mikey Mormal for hitting me up. Uh, here we go right here. The last four rounds, as I mentioned, I thought clearly it was a four round rally for Golovkin judge Dave Moretti who had it eight rounds to four. He split those rounds. He ultimately gave Canelo rounds nine and 11,
Starting point is 00:38:50 which is exactly what I did. And he gave a triple G rounds, 10 and 12. The round that he differed from me was round six that he gave to Golovkin. So that's eight rounds to four. Let's see Steve Weisfeld who had it seven rounds to five. He gave triple G the final three rounds, 10 through 12 scoring round nine for Alvarez, but he scored round eight and round one for Gennady Golovkin.
Starting point is 00:39:15 And now again, I don't see how you can do that. Even round one, which was slow paced, patient, and ultimately a close ish round. Clearly Alvarez landed the better shots as Golovkin really wasn't throwing much,
Starting point is 00:39:27 was reading, but was a step behind that whole way. As we look at the scorecard of David Sutherland, who's out of Oklahoma, he's done some big fights in the last two years, but this is really his big close-up opportunity in Las Vegas for the most part. He also gave round one a very slow round to get onto Golovkin.
Starting point is 00:39:43 He gave Golovkin 8, 9, 10. I'm sorry, 8, 9, 11, and 12. Good Lord. So as you can see, as I mentioned it earlier, they're giving him the extreme benefit of the doubt in this one. I will always defend judges to a certain degree and say, look, when we're sitting at home drinking our beer and we're
Starting point is 00:40:08 kind of scoring off the top of our head, but not really committing, we're distracted by, by different things, texting our friends. They are sitting on an Island. They are watching which fighters walking the other one down. They can see better than we can. The impact of the punches that in a close fight, a lot of times can, can defend why a guy might be two rounds in a different direction and you know you got to ask yourself if you remove all those other factors and it's just you sitting on that apron where sometimes the referee's back can get in the way or what have you could it be a little different it could be a little different this is way different in this fight seven to five you kidding me i had a 10-2 and I thought I was being a little generous.
Starting point is 00:40:46 A little generous saying, alright, am I rewarding Triple G for having a pulse finally? Or is he actually having success? There you go. At the end of the day. BC is gonna be out of here. Shout out to Mikey Mormont, my producer. Showtime CBS Sports. We love you. Thank you very much. And love you, the
Starting point is 00:41:02 viewer. Hey, we got you fired up this week. We gave you a lot of content. Interviews with all the fighters. And love you, the viewer. Hey, we got you fired up this week. We gave you a lot of content interviews with all the fighters, previews, breakdowns. I mean, everything can't win them all here. But Canelo survived in advance. And so will we as boxing fans and as morning combat talking heads. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. This this fall, it's going to be something special here. I don't have to I don't have to paint you. And I don't have to pour the optimism juice over you to get you to understand that the box will be back. And so will I signing off BC.
Starting point is 00:41:33 We love you. Take care. Brush your hair. I'm out. I'm out. I'm done. I'm done. That's it. That's it.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.