‘Back to back defeats would be catastrophic’

Speaking about the trilogy fight between Saul ‘Canelo’ Álvarez and Gennady Golovkin, Eddie Hearn has highlighted the pressure on the Mexican fighter’s shoulders.

Canelo’s last outing was an unsuccessful bid for the WBA light-heavyweight title. It was the biggest jump in weight in a career of jumping around divisions for the Mexican, and it proved too much on the night.

Bivol controlled the fight and won by unanimous decision. In a previous deal with DAZN, Canelo’s next fight was already done – a third with Golovkin. The organizer of the event believes that the latest loss makes it even more exciting.

After catching up with Ariel Helwani on the MMA class, Hearn says the perception of Canelo has changed.

“Back-to-back losses to Canelo Álvarez, frankly, are catastrophic. Until then [Bivol] fight, there was an air of invincibility around Canelo Álvarez, where it’s like he just can’t be beaten. And now people are leaving [I think Triple G might do this.]”

“It’s the belief that this guy is not invincible anymore and there’s so much pressure on him now to succeed. I think people understood him [was] moving up to a weight division he probably shouldn’t be in, he got beat up, but I think that’s a spice to this fight because people are giving Golovkin more chances and people know that Canelo is under serious pressure in this match.”

Of course, it is not only the loss to Bivol that will spur Canelo to victory. The trilogy match this Saturday marks the end of a bitter and controversial rivalry between him and ‘Triple G’ – one that began back in 2017.

The pair fought to a draw, but many in the boxing world believed that Golovkin deserved the victory. The rematch in a year’s time saw Álvarez claim victory by majority decision, with again some grumbling that Golovkin was undervalued by the judges.

Since then the pair have dominated their divisions with the feeling that a third fight was inevitable. It was, and it goes down Saturday in Las Vegas on DAZN PPV.