Saul “Canelo” Alvarez settled the issue with Gennady Golovkin once and for all with a clear-cut victory over the weekend in Las Vegas.
But it wasn’t a performance that shook the boxing world.
Instead, Alvarez just settled for a ho-hum decision that didn’t live up to the hype surrounding their rubber match.
It was a showing that didn’t match the action and aggression that happened in their first two duels.
Well, two reasons.
First of all, it was obvious Golovkin was no longer the beast he once was.
Age has caught up with him and when he faced Alvarez, they were not fighting at middleweight (160 lbs) but at super-middle (168 lbs).
Secondly, Alvarez had also slipped following that telling defeat to Dmitry Bivol a few months ago in a bold bid to become light-heavyweight champion.
Now 40, Golovkin is not calling it quits despite calls by some sectors in the boxing community that he no longer has anything more to prove.
Even the Panamanian legend Roberto Duran swears it is time for the Kazakh super-fighter to ride into the sunset.
However, this is one thing that always doesn’t work out when someone is calling somebody to retire.
You can’t blame fighters such as a topnotch pugilist like Golovkin to just do that.
These guys have egos the size of Russia.
Aside from the intoxicating allure of money, legendary punchers tend to fear the day when the cheering is going to stop.
They have so much enjoyed being in the limelight that they think the party’s going to last way until their primes.
Another observation why Golovikin and many others have delayed their respective retirements is the hidden animosity towards the promising fighters.
Boxers who have accomplished so much in their careers are allergic to seeing newbs making their way up.
Not because they don’t want them to succeed.
It’s simply because the older guys have this tendency to overvalue themselves.
Many years ago, I heard one Hall of Famer who went on to say that “when I was young, this kid would have not lasted a round with me.”
See what I mean?
Even ordinary fighters who didn’t excel that much professionally have this mentality that, once upon a time, they were just too good.
Here’s another example.
“I would have stood in there, trading with him from long range and mixing it up with (Manny) Pacquiao. I see myself even hurting him and giving him trouble before I get stopped on cuts or some other way,” one boxer told me many years ago when Pacquiao was on top of his game.
I just shook my head after the interview.
Until now, whenever I recall that moment, I cannot help but shake my head.
