Last fall, former two division world champion Showtime Boxing analyst Paulie Malignaggi was siding with IBF, IBO, WBC, WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs) to defeat Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (49-1-1, 34KOs).
Both fighters have been in action since his prediction.
In March, Golovkin went the twelve round distance for the first time in his career with a hard-fought unanimous decision over Daniel Jacobs at New York's Madison Square Garden. Canelo was in action last Saturday night, when he won a twelve round decision in a one-sided fight against countryman Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
After watching their recent fights, Malignaggi still gives the edge to Golovkin.
Malignaggi explains that Canelo is a patient and calculated boxer who counters and likes to take his time in the ring, while Golovkin is 100% pressure, is always coming forward and always letting his hands go with hard punches. He feels the style of Golovkin will force Canelo to come out of his shell, earlier than he'd like, to engage in a contest being fought at a much quicker pace than he's accustomed to.
“I favor Golovkin in the fight. Canelo has trouble with movers, which Golovkin is not, but Canelo also likes to take his time, and doesn’t like to be forced into situations where he has to fight more than he wants to. One thing about Golovkin is that he is constantly in your face, cutting the ring off. When you have that monster puncher consistently in your face, even if he’s not throwing punches, the panic does set in," Malignaggi told Boxing News.
That’d force Canelo to have to focus for three minutes of every round. That’s the type of mental pressure Golovkin puts on you. It can be very, very stressful. I’m curious to see how Canelo would react to that, because he doesn’t like to be rushed.”
