This Saturday, September 17th live at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, a third meeting between Canelo Alvarez and rival Gennady Golovkin will main event a DAZN PPV as the winner will look to walk out as the undisputed super middleweight champion.
The first chapter of this trilogy happened on September 16th, 2017. As both men headed into this highly anticipated match-up, the Kazakhstan superstar Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin entered the bout as the undefeated, unified IBF/WBC/WBA middleweight champion, meanwhile, Canelo had the lineal WBC middleweight title after defeating Miguel Cotto in 2015.
The first bout ended in a controversial draw with many under the impression ’GGG’ had won the fight.
The Rematch
Nearly 365 days later, the rematch was set to take place on September 15th, 2018. At this point, ‘GGG’ had been stripped of the IBF title so he only had ownership over the WBC and WBA straps.
In a very close and competitive contest and to many a true classic brawl that even superseded the predecessor, Canelo was awarded a majority decision victory, and though many fans remained divided as to which superstar won the bout, it was less controversial than the previous bout a year prior.
The Trilogy
It has been four years since they last met, with both fighters still finding success in their respective careers.
Golovkin amassed four victories in the four years since losing to Alvarez, most notably defeating Sergiy Derevyanchenko, for the vacant IBF strap, and most recently Ryoto Murata in a unification clash that earned him a second belt in the form of the WBA title.
Canelo Alvarez meanwhile has been the more active fighter, going 7-1 in the four-year span. In the time since his last bout with GGG, Canelo has defeated Daniel Jacobs in a middleweight unification bout, earned the WBO light heavyweight title against Sergey Kovalev, defeated three straight undefeated super middleweight champions in Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant to earn the claim as the first ever undisputed super middleweight champion in the history of the division, before losing by unanimous decision when he challenged undefeated WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol this past May.
As their third meeting approaches, both men have more questions than answers in their respective careers. Golovkin is now 40 years old and his skills have noticeably downgraded since their meeting in 2018. Also ‘GGG’ has been a middleweight his entire career and now attempts to move up to super middleweight, introducing new waters for the Kazakhstan native.
The wait is almost over 💥 Are you ready for the #triloGGGy?#caneloGGG3 on https://t.co/wP4wIpVIZY, Sept 17 pic.twitter.com/FxocEeClhh
— Gennadiy Golovkin (@GGGBoxing) September 13, 2022
Canelo on the other hand is coming off his first loss in almost 10 years, raising questions of his own mindset and confidence in his skillset.
