Irish Olympian Michael Conlan was shocked at the outcome of last week's middleweight clash between IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.
Conlan is going to return to the ring this coming Friday night as part of Top Rank's card in Tuscon, Arizona.
He felt Golovkin won the contest last week. The official scorecards came down as a draw verdict with tallies of 118-110 Canelo, 115-113 Golovkin and 114-114 for the draw.
Conlan was shocked with Adalaide Byrd scoring the contest 118-110 for Golovkin.
While Conlan felt GGG won the contest, he believes the 35 year old fighter is already declining - while the 27 year old Canelo is just finding his groove in the prime of his career. By the time the rematch would take place, Golovkin would be 36 years old.
“I don’t think Adalaide Byrd was watching that fight at all. She must have been in the changing room or something. I don’t know what she was doing, but she wasn’t watching that fight because GGG won the fight on my card. I give him about two rounds, possibly three rounds. But, at the same time, if it was draw, if it was 114-114, you’re not going to really argue really because it was a tight fight. But I definitely though he won (Golovkin),” Conlan told the Obviously Fight Talk podcast.
“With GGG, I think it’s a really terrible decision what happened because he’s 35, and by the time they fight again he’ll be maybe 36. And he’s getting on. He’s on the slide. And I don’t think Canelo will box him next. I think he’ll fight someone else and then fight him after maybe – when he gets a little bit older, and a little bit more sliding down. And that was a career-defining fight for GGG if he had of got the decision. Still, you look at it and you say ‘who would you rather be after the fight’, and you’d rather be GGG, because everybody’s crying robbery for him, so he’ll make a lot more money now with the rematch. But I don’t think he wins the rematch.”
"It’s ruined what a great fight it was, because it was a fantastic fight. Both guys showed serious chins. Both guys showed serious skills, so you can’t take that away from them. But, at the same time, it has been taken away from them when you look at it, because nobody’s talking about that. Everybody’s talking about Adalaide Byrd and her crazy scorecard.”
Regarding the rematch, Canelo has the clause to force an immediate second fight. If the rematch happens, it would come down in May 2018 at the earliest, but Conlan wouldn't be surprised if Canelo made Golovkin wait a little longer than that.
“I think after the fight he’s kind of came off a bit arrogant saying he thought he won by 8 rounds. I don’t agree there. And then obviously saying he doesn’t need to take the fight, which he does, and if you’re looking at it from a business stand-point you wouldn’t take it if you were Canelo because you’re still the big name in boxing. You’re still making the biggest money. And you can have that fight when GGG is a bit older, a bit less of what he is, and, you know, you can have a better camp again. He already waited for three years to fight him this time, so he’ll probably wait another year, year and a half," Conlan said.
