Gennadiy Golovkin labels the scorecards for his two bouts with Canel Alvarez as ‘fraudulent’ and says the verdicts ‘soured’ their saga.
Middleweight world champion Gennadiy Golovkin still hopes to land an undisputed battle with Canelo Alvarez in the future. However, ‘GGG’ doesn’t look back on their two previous meetings with any fondness whatsoever.
Drug scandals, baffling scorecards, and a trilogy rebuff still weigh heavy on Golovkin, who should have gotten at least one verdict against Canelo.
Their first bout in 2017, which took place on the back of a six-month suspension for Canelo over clenbuterol, ended in farcical circumstances.
World Boxing News scored massively in favor of Golovkin, who dominated the vast majority of the contest. WBN had it 118-110 as the trio of ring officials somehow came back with 115-113 to Golovkin, 118-110 to Canelo, and a 114-114 draw.
The split decision stalemate blighted what should have been Golovkin’s defining night.
REMATCH
A year later, they did it again in a much closer affair. However, WBN carded again for the Kazakh puncher 115-113.
Scores on the night read 115-113 twice for Canelo and another 114-114 draw.
Discussing the chance of a third fight in September this year, Golovkin once again turned towards those head-scratching scorecards.
“I have the same opinion as you that I won both fights,” Golovkin said to “Walking the Floor” with Chris Shiflett on DAZN. “And nothing is going to change my opinion.
“But there are some people who are comfortable being delusional. Let them live with this delusion.”
He added: “Whether they [the two Canelo fights] soured me a little bit, yes. Because at the time, the fight was the biggest fight in the world of boxing.
“To see that people were able to get away with this fraud, you just start thinking really – this is how it works?
“You start looking at boxing. It’s not just a sport. People are willing to tweak it to their advantage in indecent ways and get away with it from a business standpoint.
“And that’s without being responsible for their actions. Without taking liability. Of course, that sort of changed my attitude.”
UNDISPUTED
GGG added his thoughts on what would happen in the undisputed trilogy, stating: “I know Canelo as a fighter.
“I have the keys to how to open him up, how to fight against [him].
“[Some people had] shared an opinion that I was probably the one that chased Canelo away from the middleweights of the division.
“I’m not sure whether that is true.”
Phil Jay – Editor of World Boxing News since 2010 with over one billion views. Follow WBN on Twitter @WorldBoxingNews.
