Comments Thread For: Conlan: Golovkin is Sliding, I Don't Think He Wins Canelo Rematch

[bronx7]

Delahoya even knows best used to fight best he did no ducking aging chicken ****

[Lomadeaux]

Canelo doesn't want any parts of an immediate rematch and he knows it...

Absolutely. Sad part is, the only chance he has in winning a rematch would be an immediate one.

[Roberto Vasquez]

I don't get it - Golovkin bullied Canelo around the ring, landed more punches. Only reason he didn't win the fight is because of the country he is from. GGG is not fading. He was fighting his best opponent so far and he clearly beat him. Hardly took a step back even when Canelo landed his best punches. I see GGG winning a rematch easy. Stronger fitter and will land more.

[Teetotaler]

Agree 100% with McGregor. The saying "your only as good as your last fight" is true with ggg

[Kcvtr81]

So GGG is irish?

Sure why not we'll except him

[Boxing Logic]

I thought this has been great year of boxing, but you do have a point about dodging the best until they are out dated. That's becoming a norm this decade and I don't see it getting any better.

Well, it better, otherwise the sport will continue to go downhill. I encourage other fans to keep educating the casuals about the age of boxers and whether fights are happening in the fighters primes. Dont just look at the names in the matchups, look at the ages, whether the drug testing is on an even playing field, and whether the boxer has still be performing in their prime. One off night is okay if they're 28 years old or something, but once you start getting two or more bad performances in a row, and the fighter is also over 31 years old, then that is most likely a declining fighter, and fans should be aware that whoever faces that fighter at that point is likely not fighting that fighter in their prime.

Networks and promoters should also be pressured to make these fights when the boxers are 32 years of age or younger, 33 at the very latest. 34 and 35 are basically guaranteed decline ages in almost every sport in the world unless there is no drug testing.

So I agree with you, so far it hasn't changed. The same Hagler-SRL, Mayweather-Pacquiao, Canelo-GGG pattern just keeps repeating and repeating, where the establishment only makes the fights at the perfect time to guarantee their cash cows (SRL, Mayweather, Canelo) either win or at least don't get knocked out. As long as that continues to happen, yes they will protect the cash cows, but the sport itself will fall apart around them, as fans get tired of getting screwed and stop watching. So far, it hasn't changed, but I hope if fans start making a bigger issue of the ages of the boxers, that it will pressure promoters to start making the real fights during the boxers primes, even if the risk is greater. Because the reward is also greater.

I mean, if GGG knocks out Canelo two years ago, that makes GGG a big PPV star the last two years, and sets up the Ward fight. Maybe Ward knocks out GGG, now Ward is a PPV star for a few years. Canelo rebounds from the KO to become the new middleweight champ while GGG is at 168 fighting Ward and other guys, and he gets his PPV king status back. So yeah, Canelo getting KO'd maybe hurts his PPV power for a year or two until he rebounds, but in the process you create two new PPV stars, GGG and Andre Ward, without even losing Canelo permanently either, because he rebounds too eventually.

That's just one example. Boxing keeps taking the shortsighted view of "this guy makes money. We cannot let him get knocked out at any cost," instead of just letting the sport play out and new PPV stars get born every minute. What if UFC protected Jose Aldo like boxing protected Canelo? Then the UFC would never have created Conor Mcgregor the PPV star.

Or what about Cris Cyborg in the UFC? She would have been a PPV star if she knocked out Ronda Rousey, but instead the UFC kept Rousey away from her, only for Rousey to get knocked out by Holly Holm instead, who does not have the PPV upside, or the interest, that Cyborg vs Rousey always had as a matchup.

So those are just basic examples. Boxing keeps protecting the sure thing cash cows, which is killing all the potential for many, many more cash cows to be born by knocking out those guys.

Imagine if GGG knocked out Canelo, then fought Charlo in a fight of the year. GGG becomes a cash cow by knocking out Canelo. Charlo doesnt beat GGG, but becomes a mini cash cow by having a fight of the year with him. Then GGG fights Ward at 168, and Ward gets off the deck, knocks him down as well in a well, and wins wins. Now Ward becomes a cash cow. GGG goes back down to 160, with tons of public exposure from knocking out Canelo, and having wars with Charlo and Ward. GGG fights Daniel Jacobs for the first time, and barely wins. Now Jacobs is a mini cash cow for almost beating the guy who knocked out Canelo, and had a FOTY with Ward. Meanwhile Ward fights Kovalev for the first time after beating the guy who knocked out Canelo, and they have a great fight, and now there is much more fan interest in Kovalev, because he had a great fight with the guy who beat the guy who knocked out Canelo.

That's how a sport can build lots of stars, with lots of great fights, simply by letting the bets fight the best and the chips fall where they may. But because boxing keeps protecting certain guys, they can never be beaten decisively, and a result no one can glean any star power off them anymore, at least not in their primes. Yes, GGG gained some star power from this fight, not so much for his performance as the crazy controversial scorecard, but now he's 35 years old so it's kind of too late anyway. It's nowhere near the same thing as if he had knocked out Canelo two and a half years ago and then gone straight into a handful of fights vs the top guys while still at his best. Those fights would have been way more entertaining because GGG was still in his prime, and such an entertaining product featuring the guy who knocked out Canelo would only bring in way more fans and create way more hype and star power for everyone involved in those fights.

But, instead of having ALL THAT, boxing prioritized protecting Canelo instead. So now all they still have is Canelo, a past prime old GGG, Daniel Jacobs and Charlo still being totally unknown, and Kovalev and Ward doing less than 150k PPV buys. Canelo got protected, and he's still a functioning prime cash cow, but every top fighter around him had their revenue generating abilities, not to mention their legacies, sacrificed to achieve that, and to top it all off, the quality of the fights was also sacrificed, which more than anything is what will turn off fans, because the fights never live up to the hype, because they involve old fighters. Put these guys in during their primes, like JRoc vs Jermall Charlo for example, and you see what happens, the reflexes are still there to actually deliver on the hype, and guys get caught clean, and staggered, and have to fight through adversity in edge of your seat, exciting, suspenseful fights, which is what people want to see, and what promoters always advertise.

But, with the big fights, and the cash cows, boxing refuses to do this, and so the product rarely delivers. Boxing has what could be an amazing top level product, better than the NFL or any other sport, but they sacrifice it constantly... is it really worth ruining your entire product just to protect certain players? It's like if the NFL decided to make all their games ****ty just to ensure that its most popular players won. Like sure, fans of those players might still tune in, but over the long term, that just kills the league. The NFL realizes, the product is good enough. Protect the product, and the individual players aren't as important. Yes, Tom Brady will get higher ratings, but even after he retires, the sport will live on because the product is good. It's exciting. it's best vs best.

Boxing needs to realize that as well. Plus, Canelo is a PPV star because he's Mexican, not because he's undefeated. He isn't. So it's especially egregious that they protected him like this at the expense of the fight, and all the big fights that could have happened the last three years had GGG knocked him out, and the next 10 years involving guys who could have fought the guy who knocked him out the last three years, just to keep him from getting knocked out. You could understand better if it was Floyd, and they were making so much money off his undefeated record, but to do it with Canelo, who has already lost? It's just so shortsighted, and it is ruining the product.

Will it ever change? I don't know, but the chances are better it will if fans start spreading the word about it. This is even more important to the sport than judging. A great product can overcome bad judging. Plus if the fights happen during boxers prime years, they won't need to go to the judges anywhere near as often anyway. People always say "the top level fights almost never end in knockouts," which is also disappointing to fans, and they attribute that to the skill of the top guys, but that's not true. An A-level guy can knock out another A-level guy the same way a B-level guy can knock out another B-level guy. The real reason knockouts rarely happen in the "top level fights" is because the top level fights tend to always involve a protected "cash cow" fighter, and as a result that fighter is never put in with top knockout opponent in their primes. Floyd was not put in with prime Margarito or Pacquiao. Ward was not put in with prime Stevenson, (arguably Kovalev), even Bute. Canelo was not put in with prime GGG, or any other prime puncher his size his entire career. Oscar was protected when he was young. Didn't the Tito fight not happen until after Tito had been in enough wars? I forget the exact timing.

That's the real reason knockouts don't happen in big fights anymore. Because big fights involve big stars, and the establishment does not want big stars getting knocked out, because that's bad for business. And yet, Miguel Cotto was the biggest Puerto Rican star of this generation, but was it not good for business, ultimately, that Pacquiao stopped him? Margarito was a big Mexican star, but was it not good for business that Pacquiao stopped him? Heck, Pacquiao didn't just stop him, he basically retired Margarito. This very rarely happens, and yet even then, it was good for business, no? Because all that star power and hype only transferred to Pacquiao.

Boxing seems to have forgotten this. They have fully embraced the Floyd Mayweather way of building and protecting singular cash cows, and completely forgotten the much more exciting, spread-the-wealth Manny Pacquiao way of not just building multiple stars, but more importantly, building the entire sport through entertaining, top level, prime fights. Hopefully, they remember that is the better way, and the only way a real sport can function.

[champion4ever]

One thing is for certain GGG has definitely lost a step or two; Especially in the hand to eye coordination and timing on his punches. In addition, not only did he neglect the body with reckless abandonment, but likewise missed a ton of head shots, that he typically lands in his sleep too.

[Diego Rodriguez]

The questions isn't has Golovkin lost something but just how much. Any person who's played sports or watched enough sports knows 99% of athletes start losing something after your early 30's. Generally when you see an athlete start trending upward that's when red flags start to appear (PEDs). I'm talking in general, of course every athlete and sport has outliers.

I still consider Golovkin to be prime, though starting to trend down.