Via Sean Jones: Paulie Malignaggi says Canelo Alvarez did a great job of aging Gennadiy Golovkin until he turned 40 before fighting him, but he couldn’t do the same with David Benavidez.
Malignaggi says Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) can’t beat 25-year-old Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs), as he did with Golovkin because the longer he waits, the more it will worse for him.
Paulie says Canelo’s recent comment about not wanting to fight Mexican boxers is a “Police out” because he has no problem fighting Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in the past, and he is Mexican.
If Canelo has no problem mounting Chavez Jr, then he won’t have to worry about going up against Benavidez or Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez.
Malignaggi contradicted what he saw from Canelo last weekend with his win over Golovkin at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
While he was impressed with the way Canelo started, he had trouble with the way he let off steam against Golovkin in the championship rounds.
Paulie expected more from Canelo, 32, who is still at the peak of his career, against a very old-looking Golovkin.
Paulie Malignaggi said: “I think Golovkin should retire despite the middleweight titles, but it’s hard to walk away when you have the titles, and they pay you to protect them. Paulie TV.
“With Canelo Alvarez, I want to see him play against Benavidez. He always had a Golovkin third fight in his back pocket. He can get rid of Golovkin and just pick it and pick it up whenever he wants, especially since he didn’t even lose on his record to Golovkin, although he probably deserves it. at least.
“He will leave Golovkin yearning for that third fight. So the fight is always in his back pocket, and he can age Golovkin and fight him.
“Benavidez is someone that if you are going to stay at 168 with those titles the world will want to see Canelo up against. It will be a great fight.
“I know Canelo mentioned that he doesn’t want to defend against the Mexicans. He’s trying to play that, but Julio Cesar Chavez Jr is Mexican, and he’s probably the worst Mexican champion in boxing history.
“So if he [Canelo] chose to fight against him, there is no reason for him not to give a chance to some of Mexico’s top level champions, maybe David Benavidez at 168, that would be awesome. Also, maybe Zurdo Ramirez if he can successfully resist [Dmitry] Bivol. Sure, he’ll join the conversation, too.
“I think it was a cop, ‘I don’t want to fight Mexican fighters often.’ I want to witness a defense of Canelo for all the undisputed titles against David Benavidez. Let me tell you this. David Benavidez is the younger guy, so you can’t get old David Benavidez.
“The longer Canelo waits to fight him, the worst thing for him is the aging process because David is the younger guy.
“I can’t live my life with him [Canelo] a** like you guys, but I definitely want him to end the show better than the 40 year old guy [Golovkin] which we always knew he would beat at this age.
“Canelo says he needs a little rest. He himself has a busy schedule. Maybe some rest will do him well. I don’t see him standing a chance against Bivol.
“Nothing I saw last night made me think he would have a realistic chance of beating Dmitry Bivol. Of course, Bivol got his hands on Zurdo Ramirez. It was a really good fight.
“Zurdo and Bivol is a really good match that I am looking forward to seeing. Maybe Canelo will make the decision whether he wants the next Bivol based on how Bivol looks during his fight with Ramirez.
“First of all, whether he wins or loses, and second, how he looks. Golovkin last night seemed mostly a joker. He can’t really pull the trigger on anything else.
“Even when he rushes in a lot, he gets close to mid range a lot in teamfights, and he just can’t get out. He’s literally looking at Canelo, and Canelo is going to start doing some explosive shots instead. He didn’t even take them off right away.
“Golovkin got his first chance when he was in that range, but he didn’t do it. Canelo’s stab is actually so effective that he is providing support for Golovkin. Even when the shot missed, many times Golovkin stayed in place and didn’t pull the trigger.
“Golovkin, a lot of times, especially in the first three-quarters of the match, he can punch, but he can’t pull the trigger. It’s really old man’s syndrome, where you’re in a position to punch, and you see the loophole, but you don’t throw.
“If you look at the fight, Golovkin had a lot of range. He was right there, but he couldn’t start with anything creative other than tapping his right hand and touching the tip.
“About the seventh and eighth laps, he started showing a bit of a short top. I was thinking late in the war; Interestingly, Golovkin began to push the matter up a bit and ended.
“He just wanted to be there, and Canelo would lunge at him, and Golovkin would never really be able to counterattack that much. He was never a threat to beat Canelo, but he pushed things a bit further to the point where Canelo had to have some respect for him and started backing up constantly and lost his enthusiasm. .
“It really makes the fight question the same things about Canelo. Canelo usually doesn’t finish all the matches well. He finished the match on the slow end. Against Bivol, he definitely ended the fight slowly.
“Confronting a 40-year-old man, you would expect him to have a more explosive ending. I’m not saying you have to be the first to take down Golovkin, but that wouldn’t shock me. You just have to think that the younger, fresher guy will end up more explosive and dominant over the 40+ year old guy.
“People will say that Canelo has a busy schedule and that he has been a professional player since he was 15 years old. Look, Golovkin’s had a million amateur fights, and there’s more than one million amateur fights on the record. They also have more than a million records in smokers and everything else.
“When it comes to mileage on the odometer, I think Golovkin has more mileage on the odometer, not just because of his age but because of the quality he fought for. Canelo turned pro at the age of 15, fighting taxi drivers.
“Golovkin has been fighting world-class combat from an early age as an amateur. The Soviet amateur boxing system had lost its mind.
“He will step back and give up that position. Then he’ll have to start all over again with Canelo back in the middle of the ring with better legs and a change of range; it gave Canelo a lot of advantage for the rest of those innings or a large portion of those innings.
“I credit Golovkin for finishing the game strong. I don’t think it was suspect at the time. However, you have to question Canelo’s strong close-combat ability.
Against 40-year-old Golovkin, you would expect a 32-year-old phenom to close the show more spectacularly against this older guy who is fading.
“I’m still a bit confused that he couldn’t end the fight stronger with this old man. At the same time, it is reason to praise Golovkin for his career in the Hall of Fame.
“He said he wanted to get back to middleweight. I think that would be a great way to retire. He didn’t make himself a spoiler last night.
“I think retiring now would be a great thing for him instead of having someone like Charlo get you out of your misery and really risk taking you out completely.
“At a certain point, there will be nothing left. You keep going to the bottom of the barrel at a certain age, and there will be nothing left. He fought well. He has Canelo in front and fights well and is not stopped,” Malignaggi said.
