Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) is very confident that Gennady Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) will not see the twelfth and final round when they collide in the ring.
Canelo will challenge Golovkin, who holds the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC middleweight world titles, during Mexican Independence Day weekend on September 16th from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The fight will be carried by HBO Pay-Per-View.
"This fight, I don’t see it going twelve rounds," Canelo told TMZ.com. "I can almost guarantee it won’t make the twelve rounds. It will end by knockout."
Golovkin has only seen the twelfth round on one occasion - and that took place in March, when he retained his titles with a twelve round unanimous decision over mandatory challenger Daniel Jacobs at New York's Madison Square Garden.
Prior to that fight, Golovkin had stopped 23 opponents in a row, and only Martin Murray was able to withstand the punishment until round eleven. Most opponents were overwhelmed and stopped by the mid-way point of the contest.
At 35-years-old, some observers are not sure if Golovkin's inability to stop Jacobs was a sign of his age or the fact that many experts underestimated the ability of Jacobs.
At only 26-years-old, Canelo has gone the twelve round distance nine times in his long career. Canelo has stopped three of his last five opponents - with brutal knockout victories over Amir Khan, James Kirkland and Liam Smith.
Golovkin is going to be Canelo's first opponent at the full middleweight limit of 160-pounds. In May, Canelo moved up to a catch-weight of 164.5-pounds to easily dominate Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. over twelve rounds. After that fight, some wondered whether Canelo's punching power was lacking at the higher weight. He landed at will and pasted Chavez Jr. with numerous hard shots - but he was never able to rattle his Mexican rival or put him down.