By Miguel Rivera
World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman is surprised with the new attitude from WBC, WBA, IBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs).
Golovkin, who is usually very quiet and avoids making negative statements, has been verbally blasting upcoming opponent Saul "Canelo" Alvarez for several months.
Golovkin will face Canelo in a high stakes rematch on September 15th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Golovkin showed off a new attitude after Canelo tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol.
The positive reading cause their original rematch date, on May 5th, to get pushed back as Canelo was suspended for six months by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Golovkin has verbally lashed out ever since - calling Canelo a liar, a disgrace, a cheater, and a longtime user of performance enhancing drugs.
Sulaiman has firmly been standing in the corner of Canelo as it relates to the doping issue. He believes Canelo's story on the matter.
Canelo has long claimed that his positive tests were a direct result of ingesting contaminated meat.
"We are meeting a new Golovkin, at a different stage. There have been some complicated years for him. The negotiations were very complicated [for the rematch] because he always felt sidelined," said Sulaiman.
"The statements may get to Canelo and he get affected [in the rematch]. We can only know [if it affects Canelo or not] on the day of the fight when the bell rings. [They had the] doping issue, which at the time [Golovkin] did not know what substance was, and because of that it generated a very aggressive reaction and from that point everything went up in tone."
When Canelo and Golovkin initially collided in September 2017, the contest ended in a controversial twelve round split draw. One judge scored it 118-110 for Canelo, with another tabbing 115-113 for Golovkin, and the third had it 114-114 for the draw.