By Keith Idec
Oscar De La Hoya claims Canelo Alvarez has seen the best of Gennady Golovkin.
It is Alvarez, according to his promoter, who can be better in their rematch September 15 in Las Vegas. De La Hoya stated Tuesday during a split-site press conference streamed live on Facebook that Alvarez is more motivated now that there’s so much bad blood between these middleweight rivals.
“I can assure you, it’s clear that Canelo is in a stronger state of mind,” De La Hoya said. “There’s obviously bad blood and therefore that’s why it’s gonna be an amazing fight. Look, Canelo, yes, he can box, he can move, he’s the more skillful fighter. He can do all that stuff, but he can also fight. And Triple-G hasn’t seen that. But I’ll assure you one thing – come September 15th, it’s all business. It’s all going in there and proving not to everyone who’s watching, but proving to Triple-G that he’s the better fighter.”
Mexico’s Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) and Kazakhstan’s Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) fought to controversial 12-round draw September 15 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Their fight was competitive, but De La Hoya is convinced Alvarez will be better conditioned and more prepared to win their rematch, which also will take place at T-Mobile Arena.
Alvarez, who’ll turn 28 on July 18, will begin training camp soon for their middleweight championship rematch. He’ll end almost exactly a one-year layoff the night he fights Golovkin again because he is still serving a six-month suspension for failing two performance-enhancing drug tests in February.
“So will Canelo be in different shape?,” De La Hoya said. “Will he be in better shape? Will he be stronger, faster? He’s gonna be all that and then some. So on our side, we strongly feel they haven’t seen Canelo the way we’re gonna see him September 15th. We’ve seen Triple-G. We know what he does. All he does is come forward and fights, and that’s it. Canelo has many other things he does. So come September 15th, you’ll be able to witness that.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
