He finally has the big one; the defining fight of his career – yet middleweight king Gennady Golovkin says his September super fight with Canelo Alvarez could possibly be the last of his career. GGG says he feels great at age 35 – and you would be hard pressed to name a younger-looking, more fresh-faced 35 year old fighter, one who has had close to 40 pro fights and all those amateur bouts, in all of boxing – yet he is thinking about possible retirement.
It would perhaps be a great way for GGG to go out: with a win over a superstar in Canelo, having registered close to twenty world title retentions – even if, if GGG looks great against Canelo, fans will no doubt crave seeing more of him in action. But it is possible, after his much closer than expected, even struggle, with Danny Jacobs, that age IS catching up with Triple-G.
Often in boxing, the most unforgiving of sports, the fighter himself is the last person to concede how Father Time has entered the picture in a serious way. As Billy Joe Saunders recently said, not every fighter can be Bernard Hopkins. So, will September 16 see the last of the terrific middleweight ruler in action?
“I don’t know. Maybe after this fight I’m finished, maybe not,” Golovkin said to the media. “I feel very good. OK I’m 35 but I feel like I’m 25. But this is boxing, not soccer, it’s not a game, this is a fight and every fight is difficult.”
Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya, however, is having none of it as far as September 16 being the last we will see of GGG. De La Hoya says he “had a dream” about GGG-Canelo developing into one of the sport’s great trilogies:
“I had a dream the other night about all the great trilogies like Ali-Frazier, Barrera-Morales and I strongly feel Canelo-Golovkin can become a trilogy unless it’s a blow out in the first or second round, and I don’t see that happening,” Oscar said. “Boxing needs a fight like this. This is like Leonard-Duran, Leonard-Hagler, Hearns-Duran.”
It is perhaps interesting De La Hoya mentioned Hearns-Duran, as this fight, although it was one that resulted in an awesome performance from Hearns (who as we know crushed Duran inside two brutally one-sided rounds) was no great battle. De La Hoya says he doesn’t think we will see a “blow out” on September16, but maybe, subconsciously, he does.
But in whose favour? And if either Canelo or GGG suffered what Duran suffered in 1984, might the loser really think hard about calling it a day and retiring? If the fight did end that way, it would be an enormously hard rebuilding job for either fighter.