According to Oscar De La Hoya, fans tuning in for the rematch between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin will get to see a different, angrier side of the Mexican superstar.
De La Hoya appeared on ESPN’s “Get Up” morning sports show to talk about the September 15 pay-per-view bout between the middleweight stars. De La Hoya, who promotes Alvarez, stated that Alvarez is now talking about knocking out Golovkin and believes he can exploit Golovkin’s weakness of not knowing how to fight taking a step back.
“For the very first time ever, Canelo Alvarez is saying he wants to knock out GGG. I strongly believe that. He’s training hard, he looks fast, looks stronger. Golovkin doesn’t know how to take a step backwards. He’s a powerful, gifted fighter, but I feel Canelo is going to go up there and hopefully take care of business," De La Hoya said.
The rematch was supposed to take place this past May 5, but the fight was canceled as Alvarez tested positive twice for clenbuterol. Since then, Golovkin has repeatedly shown his disdain for Alvarez’s failed drug test and De La Hoya believes that has given Alvarez renewed motivation to train harder than ever before.
“Everything that Golovkin has been talking about, attacking his character, I’ve never seen Canelo train so angry. I just feel like we’re going to see a Canelo we’ve never seen before… I feel like Canelo has to start out strong and kind of bully the bully. Golovkin is one of those guys that just keeps coming forward just to give you his one shot, hoping he knocks you out. I think Canelo has to push him back. I know for a fact that Golovkin cannot fight going backwards,” De La Hoya said.
The two are set to battle at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas with Golovkin’s WBA and WBC middleweight titles on the line. The vacant Ring Magazine middleweight title is also on the line for the fight. Fightful will have live coverage of the rematch as well as a post-show podcast.
