One of the biggest boxing matches of the year is in the books and it left combat sports fans with a sour taste in their mouths.
Boxing's newest mega-star, Canelo Alvarez, started off his career undefeated before running into Floyd "Money" Mayweather in 2013, suffering a unanimous decision defeat. He would go on to pick up seven-straight wins which included four knockouts. Following his 12 round thrashing of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in May, undefeated middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin made his way to the ring to confront the Mexican, setting up their September meeting.
Golovkin is undefeated in his boxing career and once had a 37 fight win streak that included 33 wins by knockout. When he and Canelo shared the ring on Saturday night on September 16th, the men shared a pretty back-and-forth fight in the early rounds, but Golovkin seemed to control things for the majority of the bout in the latter rounds.
When it was all said and done, boxing fans believed that it would be Golovkin who clearly took home the decision win, however, the judges delivered a controversial Majority Draw decision. A rematch is being negotiated to possibly go down on Cinco De Mayo of 2018.
Mandatory IBF middleweight championship challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko recently shared his thoughts on the fight, and admitted that he believes Golovkin won (quotes via Boxing Scene):
"As expected, Golovkin and Alvarez showed us a very good fight. If we want to talk about the scoring, then I'll say right away that Golovkin won," Derevyanchenko told reporter Anuar Abdrakhmanov.
"At first glance, it seemed to me that the fight was close, because there were times when Alvarez made a very good account of himself.
"Then, when I had the opportunity to watch the fight in a calm atmosphere, I came to the conclusion that Golovkin was better and more precise. Alvarez won about four rounds.
"At the beginning of the fight, [Canelo] took some rounds and in the end, in the 12th, he looked good - but if we take the overall picture of the fight, then Golovkin was better."
WBO featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko recently voiced extremely critical concerns over Golovkin's fighting style, and Derevyanchenko says he agrees with them:
"Yes [I agree with Lomachenko]. If you take a look at [Golovkin's] recent fights, then you would see that Golovkin worked like this.
"Of course, there was a fight with David Lemieux, where Gennady worked perfectly and showed his entire technical, tactical arsenal," Derevyanchenko said.
"But with Jacobs and Alvarez - Golovkin was repetitive and just went forward. I think with Alvarez, Golovkin was unable to put his combinations together, because the Mexican did not allow him to put those attacks together.
"From the first round, Golovkin tried to land big punches, and Alvarez saw everything coming.
"In principle, Golovkin always goes out and wants to finish the fight ahead of schedule. Gennady strongly invests in his power punches, and he did not hide his punches.
"If he worked in a less predictable manner, then the punches would have probably had a better chance to reach the target."
What are your thoughts on Derevyanchenko's comments regarding the holes he has seen in Golovkin's game? Do you agree with his comments on what he has seen out of GGG? Or is he simply trying to get into the middleweight champ's head? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!
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