Last weekend removed all doubt that Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin 3 was nothing more than past-due leftovers. Tasty leftovers, posted up in front of the fridge, only to turn stale from just sitting around. As usual for boxing, it was too late being yanked out of the refrigerator, and the taste suffered greatly. Another dish ruined, before being re heated, via microwave “cheap heat,” for mass boxing consumption. The mystique of Hall-of-Famers can't shake the four-year marination, and the unavoidable foul stench of it was on display. Everyone likes one or both players, so let's run down one of the worst pay-per-views of 2022, shall we?
Did you like anything on Canelo-GGG 3 card?
Some good did happen on this card. Not much, but enough to mention a few things. Marc Castro (8-0, 6 KOs) delivered the night's knockout and saved everyone $84.99 with a highlight reel uppercut on Kevin Montiel (6-2-2, 3 KOs) in the prelims. The Fresno native Castro, who has been fielding Elon Musk offspring jokes for a while now, looked good. Castro also has tightened up his defense since being dropped by Julio Madera in March.
The crowd on hand was big once the main event rolled around. The patrons were only invested in two things:
Canelo Alvarez.
The Mexican National Anthem.
Being Mexican Independence weekend helps the latter and modern economics the former. Golovkin walked into this fight the underdog six ways to Sunday and was reminded of it here. However, these were the only two things the crowd was awake for as the night played out.
Everyone is calling it disappointing. Just say it sucked.
If you've followed my work here, you would know that most of the contests I've keystroked here won't make anyone's year-end content or lookbacks. The general theme or riding summary regarding that fight is what colleague Gayle Falkenthal wrote recapping Canelo's win:
“Boxing fans finally get an outcome not in dispute, but not the thrilling finale everyone hoped for.”
She was being nice. This shit may have been the most ponderous, criminally boring night of in-ring misery this year. It's a distant silver for any other card you can name. The whole night vibed Ambien from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas as crowd noise was as rare as the action in the ring. How quiet were they? Very. In the opening bout, you could hear the corner of Kieron Conway telling their fighter that Austin “Ammo” Williams was a novice. All while Williams was helping reposition the nose on the face of Conway over ten one-way traffic rounds.
That was the problem with this card once the pay-per-portion came rolling around. It became another night of lousy boxing at the office. The following bout was more one-way traffic as Ali Akhmedov gave it to Gabriel Rosado. Only a four-fight pay-per-view card, but those two 10-rounders that went the distance at this point felt terminal. Todd Grisham, in between the blow-by-blow action all night, reminded the viewer that nothing was happening when the co-main started between Bam Rodriguez and Isreal Gonzalez. This entire boxing night was looking for something to be interested in. It just never came. Until they sang the National Anthem of Mexico while booing Kazakhstan's anthem before the main event.
If they knew that would've been the last time, this could've been a trilogy walk-out bout.
The Main Event Happened, Then We All Went Home
The third fight between Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin was predicated, and rightfully so, on the previous 24 rounds these two had. We got at most four rounds Saturday night, reminding us why we waited so long for this fight. Sadly, those four rounds didn't occur until the fight's back end. What led instead was a half-speed reboot of the third Sugar Ray Leonard-Roberto Duran fight with the current soon-to-be Hall of Famers in the title roles.
The main event's most prominent fighter on display was Father Time, which oddly kept being dismissed on the broadcast, only to be walked back as the night progressed. Anyone paying attention saw a somewhat gun-shy, plodding Golovkin taking on a winging Alvarez, who couldn't miss Golovkin's right arm early on. Pretty pedestrian action going on. After the sixth round of this, Golovkin had nothing to offer in this bout outside of professional resistance. Like clockwork with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the judge's scorecards don't reflect what happened at the end. It's an epidemic that's lasted longer than The Cold War. However, Canelo winning was the oblivious call.
I'll spare you all the “Godfather 3” and (insert trilogy movie that sucked here, in your opinion) because there are easier ways to get carpal tunnel from boxing. What adds this card to the stack of crap is inexcusable for a price point as high as it was to deliver less action than Don King's “Return To Greatness” widely criticized card. You can go back and check out that card from February if you'd like to compare. That dumpster fire had more on the bone back in February if I haven't been transparent about that by now. It's just getting a bigger pass because of who these two are.
The Dust Settled, Where Do You Rank It?
Twitter user and boxing podcaster EZ Raw asked the rank and file of which trilogy is better, Canelo-GGG or Tyson Fury v Deontay Wilder. As I told him online, the answer is neither. How can you say neither? Easy. Both have apparent flaws but stop me if you have heard this before.
Styles make fights.
Let me finish.
Some like knockouts from big guys. Some like two people that hate each other. Between the two in-ring, it will always come down to your preference. Being at Wilder-Fury 3, I'm biased to that fight alone. Outside the ring, it's Canelo-GGG, and after this past weekend and definitive ending, it isn't even close or disputed.
Even if the trilogy ending was as flat as a fountain soda with no carbon.
