By Keith Idec
Gilberto Ramirez considers their controversial split draw a fair result of the Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin fight.
Ramirez rooted for Alvarez to win because he is a fellow Mexican and a former sparring partner. The unbeaten WBO super middleweight champion still doesn’t think Alvarez did enough to beat Golovkin convincingly in their 12-round middleweight title fight September 16 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“The last fight, he did good, but he didn’t win every round,” Ramirez told BoxingScene.com. “He won like six, seven rounds. That was an even fight. The draw was [a] good [result] for the last fight.”
One judge, Don Trella, scored the Alvarez-Golovkin fight even (114-114). Another judge, Dave Moretti, gave Golovkin a narrow win (115-113).
The third judge, Adelaide Byrd, erroneously credited Alvarez with a 118-110 win in what obviously was a much more competitive fight. She somehow scored 10 of the 12 rounds for Alvarez.
Ramirez believes Alvarez will win convincingly when Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) and Kazakhstan’s Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) meet again September 15 at T-Mobile Arena. Golovkin, the defending WBC/WBA/IBO 160-pound champion, is a slight favorite over Alvarez 2½ months before their rematch (-175/+145).
“He needs to win clearly this time,” said Ramirez, who made the fourth defense of his WBO 168-pound championship by out-pointing Colombia’s Alexis Angulo in their 12-rounder Saturday night in Oklahoma City. “It will be a good fight, I think. He will win this time clearly.”
Ramirez expects Alvarez’s youth to be a factor in their rematch.
Alvarez, a former junior middleweight and middleweight champ, will turn 28 on July 18. He has 13 more professional fights than Golovkin, but Golovkin is 36.
“[Alvarez] has power and experience, he’s younger and Gennady Golovkin is getting a little old,” Ramirez said. “Golovkin is dangerous, too, but I think Canelo can win.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.