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LAS VEGAS – Canelo Alvarez’s genuine disdain for Gennadiy Golovkin has been evident every time they’ve come face-to-face in recent months.
Alvarez has made it perfectly clear that their time apart hasn’t softened his hard feelings toward a rival who has repeatedly called the Mexican legend a cheater for failing two performance-enhancing drug tests before their rematch in 2018. What bothers Alvarez most is that he feels Golovkin’s persona is contrived, that the Kazakhstan native isn’t the good guy that much of the boxing public perceives him to be.
“He pretends to be a nice person, and he [isn’t],” Alvarez told a small group of reporters Wednesday at MGM Grand. “And he talk a lot of sh!t about me. That’s why I don’t like him. He’s a good fighter. He’s a great fighter. That’s for sure, but as a person, I don’t think so.”
Golovkin and Alvarez will try to settle their differences in the ring again Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena. Their third grudge match will be contested for Alvarez’s IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles in the main event of a DAZN Pay-Per-View show ($64.99 for subscribers; $84.99 for non-subscribers).
The 32-year-old Alvarez will attempt to bounce back from his decisive defeat to Dmitry Bivol in his last fight. Russia’s Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) outboxed Alvarez to win a 12-round unanimous decision and retained his WBA light heavyweight title May 7 at T-Mobile Arena.
Alvarez acknowledged that his intense dislike for Golovkin was helpful while he trained for what figures to be another difficult fight with his rival.
“I kind of like [it] because I train more hard,” Alvarez said, “and I go into the fight with – I feel like more dangerous.”
Alvarez admits he really wants to knock out Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs), who has lost only a 12-round majority decision to Alvarez in their middleweight championship rematch almost four years ago at T-Mobile Arena. The Guadalajara native stopped short of predicting a round in which he thinks he’ll end their long-awaited showdown, but Alvarez (57-2-2, 39 KOs) feels like he needs to produce a much more convincing victory over Golovkin than he did during their second middleweight championship match.
“I don’t know,” Alvarez said, “but my goal is to end the fight before 12 rounds.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.