You should go spend some time on youtube. 34-0 31KO's. His work speaks for itself imo, and he's charismatic as Hell.
I have in the past when I saw you guys talk about him. He looked like a beast. I just don't know how the linear and belts and all that works. I don't get how he's so good but never fought the huge names. Just trying to better understand.
33 from Kazakstan. He's at 160, but he'll come down for Canelo a bit. Didn't fight in the US until 2012, but has left a trail of destruction since he arrived. Frankly, he hasn't gotten big names because everyone's scared to fight him. 91% KO percentage. Luckily (hopefully), Canelo is afraid of no one and will fight anyone, so it'd be a massive fight if we get it. GGG has gone after belts at 160, wants to unify, but money is at 154.
I completely agree. I think he just breaks him down. Canelo is used to being the big guy and looked 15 pounds heavier than cotto tonight, it won't be the case against GGG
I gotcha. So GGG holds the belts at 160 and Alvarez/Cotto/Mayweather are at 154? So now they'll work out a deal at a catch weight or GGG will come down? Will all the belts be on the line? Like one guy would hold the 154 and 160 belts? Can that happen? Sorry, I really know nothing about how boxing works and it's all confusing to me, especially when you add in the lineal thing that makes no sense to me.
Mayweather held belts at 154 also, but he vacated them after not fighting at that weight anymore after destroying Canelo Mayweather's natural weight is 147 and that is where he does his best work, and will likely only ever work again if he is to return... Golovkin fights at 160... He had said he would come down to fight Mayweather, but Mayweather won't go up to face him at this point... Why? Because Mayweather can make $40M tomorrow night fighting a no one... He does not need to take that risk. Canelo fought at 170lbs. at least tonight despite the fight being at 155 cutoff... He will fight Golovkin eventually, and I imagine Canelo will try to get Golovkin to come down in weight instead of going up to meet him... You can hold as many of the belts as you want across weight divisions... Mayweather held 147 and 154 before vacating 154... You can hold them, but you have to defend the belts in a fight or else you have to forfeit them.... A lineal champion is thought to be the singular or true champion of a weight division... Like, for example, holding most of the belts (there are seveal different sanctioned belts in boxing) within a particular division... Being a lineal champion of a weight class is probably the second biggest honor in the sport (there are obviously several of those guys potentially at one given time because of all of the classes) after Pound for Pound King (The guy thought to be overall the best boxer in the sport)...
GGG's got the WBA, IBF and an interim WBC strap at 160. Canelo picked up the vacant WBC middleweight belt tonight that Cotto got against Sergio Martinez. Andy Lee has a WBO belt. So, if they fought above 154, all the 160 belts would be on the line except for Lee's WBO strap.
Historically, you are talking about a wonderful event- The middleweight division being arguably the most storied division in boxing history after heavyweight. A true and undisputed (save for Andy Lee, which no one will count because he's meh) champion of the middleweight division. You could call the winner the undisputed and lineal champion of the entire middleweight division, which is pretty cool. Lee's belt being recognized as kind of a joke all things considered.
GGG will murk Canelo. Really hope that fight happens. Wasn't optimistic before tonight, but with how big canelo looked (showed he can handle a fight at 160), how dominant he looked (no case for a rematch), and how he handled the questions about gennady (showed balls, didn't sidestep), it's looking like a legit possibility that fight happens next year. If gennady doesn't agree to come down to 155, does canelo have to either take it at 160 or vacate? I mean, the belt is for the mw division, not the 155 pound championship, so the wbc should make him vacate or fight at 160, right? Might be moot though, because odds are ggg just takes the 155 fight for the payday and lineal title. Will be interesting to see how this plays out though.
One thing left out here though is the "to be the man, you've got to beat the man" factor of the lineal champ. The lineal champ is a title, not an actual championship, so you have to actually fight and beat the previous lineal champ. I.e. Sergio Martinez was the lineal champ - - > he was beat by Cotto - - > Cotto was beat by canelo - - > canelo is the lineal champ. Therefore, if canelo doesn't take the ggg fight and is instead stripped of the wbc title, ggg could become the wbc champ, but he could not become the lineal champ without actually fighting and beating canelo.
It was obviously the strategy... Roach emphasized it again and again, but it was ineffective because Cotto had zero snap on his punches and Canelo was 600 tacos bigger than him. I remain underwhelmed by Canelo, though. He's a good boxer, but I think he's the type that will be destroyed by skilled boxers at the same or similar size (read: he's a Mexican)/(read: American Floyd Mayweather)
Danny Garcia vs. Robert Guerrero announced and set for Jan 23rd at Staples Center. Will be a PBC on Fox card.
We've got a PBC on ESPN card tonight. ESPN, 8:00 pm EST, Erislandy Lara vs Jan Zaveck, Emmanuel Rodriguez vs Eliecer Aquino. PBC is back on ESPN for another, you know, one of these shows. Lara has won two straight over Ishe Smith and Delvin Rodriguez, both predictable outcomes, and this doesn't figure to be much different. Zaveck is a former welterweight titleholder but hasn't faced a serious opponent since 2013, when he lost to Keith Thurman
Today: HBO / Sky Box Office (UK) / RTL (DEU), 4:45 pm EST, Wladimir Klitschko vs Tyson Fury. Another weekend, another one of the most highly-anticipated fights of the year. While Klitschko is the heavy favorite and few are picking against him, Fury brings a sort of reckless attitude and sincere ambition that makes it reasonable to expect that even if he is to lose, he's going to force Klitschko to knock him out instead of just surviving for 12 rounds. We'll see.
Tonight: HBO, 10:15 pm EST, REPLAYS: Miguel Cotto vs Canelo Alvarez, Wladimir Klitschko vs Tyson Fury. SHO Extreme, 9:00 pm EST, Amir Imam vs Adrian Granados, Oscar Rivas vs Curtis Harper. Imam is one of the Don King's latest "only fighter," a terrific 140-pound prospect. Granados may not seem like much on paper, but he's a very tough out, one of those guys who has learned on the job without being protected. SHO, 11:00 pm EST, James DeGale vs Lucian Bute, Eleider Alvarez vs Isaac Chilemba. The Extreme broadcast ends at 10:30, then the show picks up at 11 EST for the main card from Quebec City, where DeGale makes his first IBF super middleweight title defense against former titleholder Bute.