Gennady Golovkin vs Saul Alvarez: Boxing hopes for a special rematch, a clean fight and no more wild judging

The bookies favour Golovkin, the venue will be heaving with Canelo’s devoted flock and from the outside looking in the world of boxing simply expects a special fight

Last year Gennady Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez fought 12 torrid rounds, split $80m, put on pause the gambling heartbeat of Las Vegas for an hour and then stood in shock when one judge returned a score so skewered it remains unsettling to this day.

Their fight was declared a draw with a vote for each and a third judge scoring it even, which was not a great crime, but the scoreline rendered by experienced judge Adalaide Byrd, in favour of Alvarez by 10 rounds to two, is without doubt the single worse piece of judging I have ever witnessed. The decision to do it all again on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena back in Las Vegas, pocket more money and end all arguments was simple to make; the righteous in Golovkin’s team battered away at the reluctant in the Canelo business to agree a bad-tempered deal.

Golovkin and Alvarez were scheduled to fight again in May; the fight collapsed when Alvarez failed two routine drug tests, showing positive for Clenbuterol, in February. Alvarez was eventually banned for six months from enriching the kitty in the great fight city and during his ban, Saturday’s fight was announced. Alvarez had claimed, like hundreds in the past, that contaminated Mexican beef was the problem, a proven swerve, and he is now thankfully part of a regular testing programme; Golovkin has had 12 urine and six blood tests since February. “We now call Alvarez triple C: Canelo Con Carne,” said Abel Sanchez, the trainer of Golovkin, whose nickname is Triple G. It is the only attempt at humour in what has been a dark year for both.

So against this sordid backdrop, two of the finest fighters of the modern era will strip down to do it all again in front of more than 20,000 fortunate enough to own a ticket for a steep seat inside the gleaming arena. There is, obviously, more than just Golovkin’s glittering collection of middleweight belts on offer to the winner, assuming the three judges this time can find a clear and clean winner. Last year I thought Golovkin deserved the win and I just hope that this year he does not benefit from some type of warped, delayed justice: Nobody deserves the spoils from a second disgrace.

Alvarez has fought 52 times, lost just once, turned professional at just 15 and had been in 21 fights by the time he was 18. He is and remains a Mexican idol and in our business he is still the number one pay-per-view attraction even after the drug failures. “I don’t care what people say or think,” insisted Alvarez, speaking this week in Las Vegas. “The good tests, the more convincing tests, are there for everybody to see.” In May Alvarez agreed to enhanced scrutiny and total testing.

Golovkin and Sanchez just shake their head when talking about Alvarez’s tests. “I had my fears before the first fight,” Golovkin said. “I could see the needle marks. I knew.” The controversy last year, the drug smear this year and a variety of threats and verbal assaults have increased Golovkin’s end of the financial party from $20m in 2017 to roughly $48m this time.

Saul Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin will go head to head once more (AP)

“I keep hearing him say that it is not about the money,” said Alvarez. “But all he talks about is the money – he is a hypocrite.” It is probably about the only patch of moral high ground Alvarez can even contemplate nimbly skipping across. The Mexican will tuck away over $60m in his designer poncho when he rides out of town on Sunday morning, hopefully with the triumphant words of a mariachi singer ringing with praise in his ears. Alvarez adores horses and does have retro designer ponchos – as I said, he is a hero in Mexico.

Golovkin, meanwhile, is unbeaten in 39 fights, 34 have ended quickly, this will be his 21st defence of his middleweight title and if he wins he will snatch a deep record for defences from Bernard Hopkins. Golovkin was once on a sequence of 23 consecutive stoppages and so far 19 of his 21 world title fights have finished early, including the night in Panama back in 2010 when he first won a part of the title in just 58 seconds. Golovkin promises “big drama show” each time he fights and he has subdued the desires and sent some very tough men tumbling to the canvas, bloody and broken, during his chilling reign. He is arguably the greatest boxer to ever emerge from the Eastern Bloc and in his native Kazakhstan the remnants of the Soviet system shaped young Gennady, who fought over 300 times as an amateur.

However, Alvarez took Golovkin’s best punches and won the last two rounds on all three scorecards. That was then, that was before the Clenbuterol exposure, before the indignation and before the secret machinery behind fights in Las Vegas started to whirl in confusion and dread. The city knows that there must not be another score like the abomination delivered by the disgraced Byrd.

Golovkin has promised to be busier and Alvarez has slimmed down, looks less bulky and has talked in Spanish about movement, being swift and not standing still. The bookies favour Golovkin, the venue will be heaving with Canelo’s devoted flock and from the outside looking in the world of boxing simply expects a special fight. Golovkin can win unless he has to chase Canelo this time in a fight boxing needs to be clean in every single way.