Former two-weight champ and pound-for-pound star Andre Ward’s words on the final chapter of the Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin rivalry sure caught the attention of plenty of people, as has his interview on Max on Boxing been doing the rounds. Ward who, if things had turned out differently, could perhaps have fought Golovkin, was nothing short of scathing when reviewing the trilogy fight.
And Ward was/is critical of both men.
“I thought Alvarez should have stopped that version of Canelo,” Ward began. “If Canelo is who he says he is, an all-time great, you got to take advantage of a fighter like that, who literally just showed up to get a cheque. The performance from Canelo was a little shocking. I thought he would do a little bit more, but the performance from Golovkin was not shocking. I was shocked by the reaction and the response that the people finally got the revelation that he’s looking old. He’s looked old for the last two or three years, and because he’s got the mantra of the Mexican style, everybody excuses the fact that he takes way too many punches and way too much punishment.”
Ward didn’t stop there, with the man who never lost a fight stating how GGG’s resume is not at all impressive; adding how “If you think about is, [Canelo] is the biggest name, the only real name that Golovkin has on his record. No matter how you feel about it, that’s the truth. I don’t think he wanted to fight some of those fighters. I’m not talking about me. There were certain guys that you and I know being at HBO that he wasn’t going to fight.”
It would have been interesting to hear Ward elaborate and name these fighters GGG didn’t want to fight; who he ducked, let’s write it clear and simple. Wasn’t it Golovkin who was the fighter being avoided, not the other way around? We can go back and forth all we like, for sure. But what now for GGG? Golovkin said after the loss to Canelo that he will be back. But how many more times will Golovkin leave experts such as Ward feeling he merely turned up to pick up a cheque?
As for the once talked of GGG-Ward fight, Golovkin did state how Ward was “lying to the fans,” that his team “made the offer after I announced the fight with [David] Lemieux and sold out Madison Square Garden. Ward, GGG said, “is still angry since you never sold tickets like me.”
What a shame these two superb fighters didn’t settle their differences in the only place that matters – in the ring.