Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach admits that for a long time he felt IBF, WBC, IBO, WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) would destroy Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs).
The fight was in high demand for a very long time.
Last month, it was finally finalized for September 16th, on HBO Pay-Per-View, from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Roach now says his opinion on the fight has greatly changed, because he feels Canelo has become a much better fighter in the last two years. He even went as far as to call it a 50-50 encounter.
"At one time everyone thought that Golovkin would kill him and so forth, but I don’t think people think that anymore. Alvarez has become a pretty good fighter and he’s really progressed in his career, he’s gotten better and better every fight. He looked great in his last fight and I think him and Golovkin are dead even at this point," Roach told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
Roach is very excited to watch the fight. He felt Golovkin put in a lackluster performance back in March, when he fought his way to a twelve round unanimous decision over Daniel Jacobs at Madison Square Garden in New York City. In that bout, Golovkin went the twelve round distance for the first time and Jacobs also snapped GGG's streak of 23 knockouts.
"I think it’s a great fight, I think it’s a very good fight. It’s about time that it happens. When the best fight the best, there’s no better sport than boxing. These are two guys that are really good fighters, but GGG didn’t look that great in his last fight and Canelo looked great in his last fight. Can we go by that? I’m not sure, but the thing is, it’s a very interesting fight and I can’t wait to watch that myself," Roach said.
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