Hunter: Canelo Must Stand Ground in Every Round To Beat GGG
Virgil Hunter, best known as the trainer of the recently retired light heavyweight king Andre Ward, believes Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) will have to be prepared to stand his ground, in every round, if he intends to get a clear victory over IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs).
Last month Canelo and Golovkin fought to a controversial twelve round split draw at he T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The scores were 118-110 Canelo, 115-113 Golovkin and 114-114 for the draw.
There were many who felt Golovkin had done enough to get the victory, but there were also many who felt the draw was fair and others who saw Canelo winning a close fight.
There are ongoing negotiations to stage a rematch on May 5, as part of Cinco De Mayo weekend.
According to Hunter, if Canelo plans to secure a clear victory over Golovkin - he will need to fight in a different kind of style - or else the fight may once again end up as a draw or Golovkin will win.
In the first bout, Canelo used a lot of movement and Golovkin was in hot pursuit in every round. Some felt Canelo used too much movement in the some of the rounds, giving the appearance that he was avoiding exchanges. For the second fight, Hunter says Canelo must be prepared to mix it up more often, in every round.
"I’ll put it this way, if Canelo is going to win, he’s going to have to fight a different fight than what he fought before. I think if Canelo fights the same fight, they’re going to see it the same way. Not to say that he’s not being successful, but in order to really make it clear, he’s going to have to stand his ground in every round. If he’s able to do that, then he’s got a great chance of winning. If he can’t and it’s the same kind of fight, then people will tend to look at it the same way, unless he’s so devastating in his counter punching. I can’t see being any other way but the way the first fight was," Hunter told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
By the time the rematch comes around, Golovkin will be 36 years old. There are some critics who feel Canelo, who is nearly a decade younger, can improve - while the older Golovkin will likely stay the same.
Hunter disagrees. He feels a boxer at any age can improve, make adjustments, and come back even better.
"People are always going to have their say so. If you wanted to be logical, that’s a logical way to think. That’s not a wrong way to think, but you can’t underestimate a fighter of Golovkin’s caliber. To say that Golovkin didn’t learn anything in that fight would be absurd. To say that he doesn’t have any room to improve is absurd," Hunter said.
"They say Canelo is younger and has more room to improve, but I don’t see where age makes a difference in improvement. If that was the case, then young fighters would be running the game, we wouldn’t have Bernard Hopkins lasting until he was forty. There’s always room to grow regardless of your age, as long as you’re in the game, there’s always some things you can improve on. I still see it as a fifty-fifty fight, I’m sure both guys will make adjustments that they need to make and it will probably turn out to be a better fight."
