Gennadiy Golovkin of Kazakhstan will be going head to head with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez of Mexico for the third time in the boxing ring as they’re set to battle it out again this Saturday, September 17th in Las Vegas, Nevada. The two fought to a 12-round draw in 2017 as middleweights and again in 2018 with Alvarez earning a close 12-round majority decision in another highly-controversial outcome.
This time around, the pair are meeting as super middleweights with Alvarez entering the contest as the undisputed champion in the 168-lb division with his WBC/WBA/IBF/WBO and Ring Magazine belts all being on the line.
The 40-year-old Golovkin, who’s also known as Triple G, is currently the IBO, IBF, and WBA World Middleweight Champion. He’ll enter the ring with an impressive mark of 42-1-1 with 37 knockouts with the only blemishes on his record coming at the hands of Alvarez. Golovkin is one of the hardest-punching middleweights in history and possesses an 84.1 per cent knockout ratio. He has halted four of his past seven opponents and ran up a streak of 23 consecutive knockouts earlier in his career.
Alvarez is 32 years old and the undisputed super middleweight champion will climb through the ring ropes with a record of 57-2-2 with 39 knockouts. He also has better-than-average power in his hands with a current knockout ratio of 64 per cent. His two career defeats came at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2013 and Dmitry Bivol in May of this year as he lost both bouts by 12-round decisions. His two draws came against Golovkin in 2017 and Jorge Juarez in 2006.
Comparing the two boxers size-wise, Golovkin has a 70-inch reach and measures 5-feet-10-and a half inches tall while Alvarez is 5-feet-8-inches in height with a 70.5-inch reach. Golovkin made his pro debut in 2006 and has boxed 228 rounds since while Alvarez turned pro as a teenager in 2005 and has 448 rounds of pro experience.
Golovkin’s a multiple-time middleweight champion whose biggest wins have been over Ryota Murata, Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Daniel Jacobs, David Lemieux, Kell Brook, Willie Monroe Jr., Martin Murray, Marco Antonio Rubio, Curtis Stevens, Daniel Geale, Gabriel Rosado and Matthew Macklin.
Alvarez has won world titles in the junior middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight and light-heavyweight divisions with his biggest victories coming against Golovkin, Callum Smith, Caleb Plant, Billy Joe Saunders, Sergey Kovalev, Daniel Jacobs, Amir Khan, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., James Kirkland, Miguel Cotto, Austin Trout, Shane Mosley, Erislandy Lara, Josesito Lopez, Alfredo Angulo, Kermit Cintron and Carlos Baldomir.
Both boxers possess thunderous power and granite chins and that’s why their first two fights are considered to be classics in the sport of boxing. Neither man gave an inch with both connecting on numerous punishing head and body blows over the 24 rounds they’ve shared in the ring.
Golovkin and Alvarez are bitter rivals who certainly bring out the best in each other with both of their previous contests resulting in extremely debatable, razor-thin decisions by the judges.
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